healing
by fairytalelights
Summary: /because it's time to rediscover what it means to live./ Reyna's free for the first time in years, from responsibilities and duties and crazy quests, and she's staying in San Fransokyo. She's not expecting to meet a robotics genius who teaches her that there's more to life than she ever thought. (The past doesn't hurt so badly when there's someone determined to help you heal.)
1. when in san fransokyo

**yes. i know. many many other stories that i should update. but i love tadashi. and reyna needs so much more love. **

**(like basically every other BH6 crossover i've done so far...written for fun. yeah. so it's automatically on my delete-without-warning list. yup.) **

**okay hope you enjoy!**

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><p>San Fransokyo is nothing like New Rome.<p>

And Reyna loves it.

There's no sense of order here – the city is a mess of dark streets and bright lights and buildings toppling over each other, pavements full of cracks and roads that seemed to criss-cross their way around each other. There is none of the order, none of the discipline and the rigid form that she is used to.

She thinks she may be in love with this city.

Of course, she knows that there are many cities just like this. She knows that there are plenty of cities in a mess, falling over, bright and gleaming and somehow still dilapidated.

She doesn't really care. Right now, San Fransokyo is _hers_.

It's been a few years since the war against Gaia. It's been a busy few years, working with Camp Half-Blood, taking care of Camp Jupiter, dealing with everything that's come their way. She's grateful that Frank's been there every step of the way, stepping into Jason's shoes (she doesn't really consider Percy praetor, since he never actually _did _anything in his role), giving his own and often-workable ideas that she'd never considered before.

And now – now it's all behind her. She's retired from the Twelfth Legion. She's no longer praetor.

_She's free. _

Of course, Reyna knows she owes Camp Jupiter and New Rome everything. She's lived there ever since she and Hylla got away from the pirates all those years ago. It's her home, it's been her home, for years. She's put her heart and soul into it, she's fought for it, she's sacrificed so much for it. It's all she's ever known.

But now she's finally left it behind her.

She remembers when she first brought up this idea to Frank – leaving New Rome, leaving Camp Jupiter, after she officially resigned. She remembers him dropping his stack of papers in shock, staring at her, speechless.

"But – but aren't you going to attend college in New Rome?" he'd asked her, looking bewildered.

She supposes that everyone had been expecting that. To go to college and settle down in New Rome.

It's not what she wants.

She told him how she'd been thinking of this for weeks. She doesn't want to live her whole life here, she told him. Yes, it's her home. It'll always be her home. But she wants to be free, for once. She doesn't want responsibilities.

She wants to _live_.

And Frank Zhang respected that.

"Where will you go?" he'd asked.

"I don't know," she had admitted.

So he'd found Piper and Jason and Annabeth and Percy and Hazel and Rachel, and he'd even found Chiron and Nico di Angelo and the son of Hades' boyfriend Will Solace. Reyna had frozen in the doorway when she'd found them all in the office, discussing, of all things, _her_.

"We were thinking," Annabeth had said, her clear grey eyes looking into Reyna's, "San Fransokyo."

Rachel, it seemed, had family friends there – some ultra-rich family called the Lees. She told Reyna that San Fransokyo was perfect, because it wasn't that far away from New Rome if she ever wanted to drop by again, and it was also far away enough that she could do whatever she wanted.

After looking at the map, Reyna'd realised she was right.

So Rachel had done some calling up, and Reyna had packed up her stuff, and after a day or so Rachel had bounced back into Camp Jupiter saying that her friend Fred had said that his parents were on one of their many family vacations and that he wouldn't mind a friend of Rachel's staying in the manor with him and Heathcliff, the butler.

Reyna had been wary, at first, of going to live with a complete stranger.

But Rachel told her that Fred was actually pretty lonely since his parents were always away, and he'd always been a good friend to her even though he was a few years older, and that besides, Reyna didn't _have _to stay with him.

So Reyna had agreed.

Fred hadn't been so bad. She'd gone to meet him with Rachel, who had taken her to San Fransokyo in the family chopper (sometimes Reyna forgot just how rich the Oracle of Delphi was), and even though he'd just grinned lazily at her with his messy hair and baggy clothes and had Heathcliff help her with her stuff up to her rooms ("Hey, no worries. I'm totally putting you in a room not in the same corridor as mine, you know, in case you feel uncomfortable living in the same house as someone you don't know, so, yeah, space"), Reyna liked him.

Yes, she thinks now, as she trudges through the streets of San Fransokyo, Fred's not bad at all.

For years, Reyna has surrounded herself with demigods, with people who know that one mistake and they can be dead. Even Dakota, with his easygoing, laidback nature, knows this. He knows how to fight for his life, even if he's drunk on Kool-Aid while he does it.

Fred's different.

He doesn't make her spend time with him, even though it's clear he considers her lack of comic-book knowledge a clear disaster ("Have you been living under a rock your entire life?"), but some days they end up on the sofa watching movies, and he even teaches her how to play video games, and it's not long before he regrets it because she is successfully kicking his ass at every game they play together.

She's never felt so carefree.

On most days, though, he's off at the college where, he tells her, he's the school mascot, even though he's not a student there.

He shows her his sign-spinning skills, once, and Reyna has to admit that she is slightly impressed.

She spends her days exploring the manor, and the grounds, and the streets of San Fransokyo. Fred's offered to take her around, but she's refused; she _wants _to get lost. She wants to discover this maze of messy dark streets and bright city lights in this wonderfully, horribly disorganised place.

And she supposes she likes the thrill of it. The thrill that there is someone out there who might hurt her, lurking in the shadows – and all she has to care about is she and herself and she's not held down by her responsibilities to Camp Jupiter, or to a quest.

Fred tells her it's dangerous. She tells him she knows how to take care of herself. She's not planning to let herself get killed any time soon.

Some days, of course, she still has to fight off the occasional Cyclops or ogre that comes barrelling into the dimly-lit streets she wanders around. Stupid, really. They're usually alone, and she's always got an Imperial Gold dagger with her, at the very least. But mostly, they leave her alone; even if they're hungry for demigods, most monsters know who she is, and who her sister is; almost everyone has heard of her making her way across the Mediterranean and slashing down every monster that came into her path, and it's gotten her a reputation.

Still, there are the random attacks every now and then.

It's one dark night when she's making her way through the streets in a seedy area of San Fransokyo that four dark figures loom above her, tattooed and pierced and in ragged clothing, eyes glinting in the dim light.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing out in these parts so late?" one of them asks, voice raspy, as Reyna observes quickly, quietly.

Four mortals. Half-drunk. Not very fast. Very violent.

"Walking," she says.

"Pretty girl like you shouldn't be out alone," another one of the figures says.

"Thank you for your concern," she says. (She thinks Nico's rubbing off on her, what with the way she speaks now – gods, she misses that kid.) "I'll be on my way now."

She's about to sweep her way through them, when one of them lunges for her.

Reyna doesn't think. She strikes out.

Five seconds later, the guy has fallen on his back, shrieking, and the remaining figures stop to stare for one disbelieving moment before turning hard, angry eyes on her.

Reyna almost smiles. This should be fun.

(When has she gotten so reckless?)

It's then that there's the roar of an engine – at least, a sound that's considered a roar in the quiet street – and a moped skids into view, lights shining yellow, a well-built guy with a baseball cap and jacket driving it.

"Hop on," he says, to Reyna, as the remaining three figures stagger backwards from the light.

For a moment, Reyna is annoyed. She knows how to take care of herself. She can deal with this situation. What in Hades' name is this guy doing?

_Trying to save her_.

She decides to jump on.

"Hang on," he says to her, and Reyna just has time to wrap her arms around him before he's off, flying down the street, skidding through the roads and going around corner after corner. For a moment she feels ridiculous – her, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, holding on for dear life to a boy she doesn't even know.

He doesn't stop, not until they're in one of the more brightly-lit areas of San Fransokyo, and he finally comes to a halt outside some kind of diner.

"Are you okay?" he asks her, as she slides off the bike.

Reyna blinks at him. He looks worried, genuinely worried and concerned.

"I'm fine," she says; and then, almost reluctantly, she says, "Thanks."

(He didn't have to rush in and try and help her; but he did.)

He beams at her, then, and it's like his whole face has lit up from inside. "No worries," he says. "Is there anywhere I can take you? Drop you off?"

"Quite the Wonder Boy, aren't you?" Reyna asks.

He just grins again, flushes. "Hey, you're alone on the streets of San Fransokyo at eleven thirty at night," he points out. "I can't exactly let you walk home alone. There could be more sketchy characters out there."

For a moment, Reyna wants to roll her eyes and tell him she can take care of herself. After all, she's looked after herself for years; she's spent _years _fighting for her Cohort, and her Legion, and her Camp, and for her life. Reyna can take care of herself, thank you very much.

But he's looking at her, looking at her with a sort of half-smile that makes something in Reyna's stomach flip over.

"I don't even know your name," she says.

"Fair enough," he says, cheerfully. "I'll tell you my name, if you tell me yours."

For another moment, Reyna wants to blink in disbelief. Nobody's ever talked like this to her before; no one, not really, except for maybe Nico, and occasionally Jason or Frank or Annabeth.

But before, she was Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Sister of the Queen of the Amazons. Cold, harsh, unrelenting, merciless.

Now she's just Reyna.

"Reyna," she says, finally.

The smile spreads across his face. "I'm Tadashi."

* * *

><p><strong>sooo...any comments? haha<strong>


	2. the nerd lab

**hey! first of all, thank you guys for ALL the responses to the first chapter, yeah? means a lot! hope you'll like this next chapter too! won't be going too fast. **

**(and for the record...i love tadashi muchmuch. there is no way i'll be killing him off if i have the chance omg)**

**anyway, hope you enjoy! **

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><p>He doesn't end up dropping her off - not just yet, anyway. Instead, they end up inside the twenty-four-hour diner, where, Tadashi informs her, they serve all-day breakfast, and he promptly orders waffles.<p>

Reyna hesitates, then does the same. Along with a cup of hot chocolate. She's reminded of days with Coach Hedge and Nico, and the satyr's ability of cooking up incredible meals - and she can remember, too, the wonderful waffles that he made for them whenever possible.

Good times.

"So," Tadashi asks her, once their waffles come: "What are you doing, wandering the streets of San Frasokyo at eleven thirty? It's dangerous."

"I know," she says. "I was walking."

His face twists into a frown: "Walking? But – "

Reyna shrugs. "I know how to take care of myself."

"Like just now, with those three thugs?"

"Actually, there were four," she says. "I knocked out the first one."

He stares at her, for a moment, in complete disbelief, as she sips at her hot chocolate. When she lowers the mug, he says, "You're not kidding me, are you?"

She shakes her head, and she can't help it. She smiles. "No. I'm not good at that."

"That's dangerous," he says. "I mean, you still shouldn't be walking around like that alone. You could get hurt."

Reyna looks at him, for a moment.

"You want to help people," she says. "You do, don't you? You can't stand seeing people get hurt."

He stops with a small square of waffle halfway to his mouth, and he stares at her. Reyna just stares back. After a moment, he finally gets it into his mouth and he swallows, quickly.

"You're good at reading people, aren't you?" he asks, with a wry grin.

Reyna just shrugs again. A voice screams in her head _what are you doing?_ Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano is no good at conversation. She is no good with people. She never has been. But she ignores the voice, focusses on the waffles, on the hot chocolate, on the Wonder Boy sitting across her. She can't recall ever doing anything like this before.

Well, of course she's never done anything like this before. She doesn't usually start the conversation, or blurt out her thoughts on someone.

But then again, she's never actually eaten breakfast in a diner at eleven thirty at night before, whether it's with someone she knows or not.

They don't say much, neither of them. He seems content to eat quietly. Reyna's grateful.

It's twelve fifteen when they finally leave the diner, and Tadashi glances at his watch and grimaces.

"Aunt Cass is going to kill me," he mutters to himself.

"I can get home on my own," she says again.

Tadashi looks at her, raises an eyebrow. "No chance," he says, and he slides onto his moped: "Come on. Just tell me where to go."

Reyna looks at him, again, for one disbelieving second; and she thinks of Jason, of Percy, of the two boys she'd foolishly let herself care for, the two heroes of Olympus that had always been so ridiculously gallant and chivalrous and noble.

Like Tadashi sitting in front of her, waiting for her to get on behind him so he can make sure she gets home safely.

_Don't_, a voice says, inside her head. _Don't do anything stupid_.

But she slides onto moped and gives him directions to Fred's house.

"Thank you," she says, when she slides off and she sees him gaze, open-mouthed, at the huge building in front of him. "For saving a random stranger in the middle of the night."

He snaps back to attention, grins at her, doffs his baseball cap. "For a lovely lady, anything."

She can't help it. She laughs.

"A miracle!" he says, and he's smiling at her with that half smile. "She laughs!"

"Yeah, whatever," Reyna says, but she can't help smiling, and she turns around to head back to the house; but she stops, and she throws over her shoulder: "Thanks, Wonder Boy."

"Wonder Boy?" he asks, indignantly, but she just smiles again and disappears into the house.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Fred asks her what time she got home.<p>

She shrugs. "Twelve thirty, maybe."

He nearly chokes on his pancakes. "_What_?"

"I got a ride back," she tells him.

He just stares at her. "You could've been _hurt_! Reyna, what's _wrong _with you? Wandering out so late is bad enough, but twelve thirty?"

For one long moment, she stares at the pancakes she's drenched in maple syrup. She can't bring herself to meet Fred's eyes.

No one's ever spoken like that before. Not to her. Everyone's always known that she can take care of herself; everyone's always known that she prides herself on being able to take care of herself. She didn't get the position of praetor from sitting around watching others fight.

But she supposes it's nice to feel that someone's concerned for you.

She thinks of Tadashi with his half-smile.

"I'm sorry," she finds herself saying, as she slowly looks up. It's not a phrase she's used to saying. She doesn't often need to apologise.

But here she is. Saying it. And guilt rises up in her, painful and sticky, because Fred is looking at her with a worried look in his eyes.

"Hey, just, no more late nights, okay?" he says. "I mean, you wanna feel the thrill of danger, fine. Just don't throw yourself into suicide missions._ Not _cool."

"Yes, Fred," she says, dryly. "Because that's my mission in life. To get myself killed."

Fred just shrugs, grins at her. "Hey. The way you play video games, it's like you throw yourself into situations where you have the highest possibility of being killed, before dragging yourself out."

At his words, she slows down.

Throwing herself into situations where she has the highest possibility of being killed, before dragging herself out.

Isn't that what her whole life has been? From her time with the pirates to being praetor of Camp Jupiter? Even now, instead of choosing to live safely in New Rome, she'd chosen to step out into the world, alone, wandering the dark streets at night.

Reckless is what Nico would've called her. Maybe he's right.

She's always thought that she would want safety and security and comfort, after all that she's been through.

"Reyna?" Fred asks, hesitantly, and Reyna immediately smooths her expression out, glances up at him. "You okay?"

"Perfect," she says. "Do you have a gym in here?"

* * *

><p>Sweat is dripping through her hair, down her forehead. Her limbs burn – her arms, her legs, everything, and pain rips through her as she lands on the ground.<p>

But Reyna thinks she's never felt this good in days.

Of course, this isn't as good as a real hand-to-hand combat situation. But it works, she supposes. It works very well. They've got so many punching bags, she's pounded her anger and frustration at herself into at least four of them, and for some strange reason they've got some kind of obstacle course that she's decided to use.

She supposes that the obstacle course is one of Fred's presents to himself.

She doesn't really care either way. She's burning up, pain flares through her body, but this – this is good. This is what she is used to, what she's always known. Pushing herself, pushing herself even more to reach her limits, exercises that have been drilled into her since young.

She's lost in what she's doing. Lost because all she can think of is burning pain, of reaching perfection, of being the best because that's how she knows to live. Forget cute guys with half-smiles and offers to drive you home at midnight. Discipline, hard work, skill, strength. Focus. A punch, a kick, a leap. Swinging with her sword. Darting, moving, flying.

"That was _awesome_!"

Reyna doesn't even think. She slips into a fighting stance, a cold mask, and she turns to face the sound of the voice.

It's Fred.

Almost immediately she drops her arms, manages half a smile. "Hi."

"I didn't know you know martial arts!" he says, his voice amazed.

"It's not," she says. "It's just – " she pauses. "Hand-to-hand combat."

"That is totally awesome," he says. "So this is why you asked to use the gym, like, all those days ago?"

She nods.

And then – "Hey, is that a tattoo?"

Almost unconsciously, Reyna glances down at her arm, where her SPQR tattoo is clear, bold and dark. She's forgotten about it. She usually wears long-sleeved shirts or jackets, so Fred's never seen it before, but in her tank top and with her arm facing him, it's not hard to miss.

"Yeah," she says, and she turns her arm to hide it.

"Cool," Fred says, and Reyna is grateful he seems distracted as grins at her. "Oh, yeah, sorry I haven't been around. Been checking out my friends' projects. They're ultra-awesome."

To be fair, Reyna's hardly noticed. She wipes herself out every day at this gym and on the grounds of Fred's family's manor, she collapses into her bed every night and she's up every morning before sunrise.

"Your friends' projects?" she decides to ask.

"Oh, yeah," he says. "You know. San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. They've all got really great projects. You wanna see them some time?"

Reyna's eyes drift onto one of the punching bags. Fred seems to see where her thoughts are taking her.

"Hey, come on," he says. "If this is what you've been doing for, like, the past six days – and Heathcliff's been telling me you spend _all _your time here – then you, like, totally need a break."

A break.

She hesitates.

Reyna doesn't get breaks. Not really. When as praetor, even with her and Frank sharing the workload, she's always the one up late into the night. Frank's always said she insists on giving herself extra work - which, she supposes, is true. When you're fighting for your life against pirates, when you're in Camp Jupiter determined to push yourself to be the very best you can be so you'll never feel lost and helpless again, you don't have time for breaks.

"Okay," she tells him.

* * *

><p>So the next day, Fred blinks when he sees Reyna walk down in a dark jacket, dark top and black jeans with nothing else on her.<p>

"Not even a bag?" he wants to know. "I thought all girls like to carry bags around."

"Don't push it, Fred," she says. "It's better to travel light."

He grins at her lazily. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a ninja. The way you fight, and the way you wander the streets alone, the way you carry, like, the least stuff you would ever need, and the fact that you are totally amazing at walking around without being heard at all – totally a ninja. Plus your clothes. Totally the best ninja outfit ever. You just need a mask."

She rolls her eyes.

There is something about Fred that makes it so very easy to relax around him. He laughs, he jokes, he tells her stories about what happens in his comic books and all the comics and action shows he's ever read or watched. He doesn't take no for an answer, he makes her smile and roll her eyes.

It's different.

When they finally reach SFIT, it's grounds and grounds of endless gleaming buildings and grass, and even with the technology and modernity all around them, it's – it's _peaceful_.

She doesn't know why, but she's reminded, just slightly, of New Rome and Camp Jupiter, and even Camp Half-Blood.

For a moment, before she steps into the building that Fred brings her to, she's hesitant. After all, demigods and technology don't mix well together.

But she's Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, praetor of the Twelfth Legion, daughter of Bellona and Horse Friend. She'll get through this.

So she follows him through the corridors.

"It's kinda weird, not being here in my mascot suit," he throws over his shoulder, "but this is so cool. I swear, you're going to love them."

"Them?"

"My friends."

She follows him through a pair of sliding doors, and her eyes widen in disbelief.

Whatever she's expecting, it's certainly not this. Not the machines, contraptions, experiments, everything happening around her – it's a mess of sound and colour and light and endless working, people working on machines and contraptions she'd never even _dream_ of.

She thinks the Hephaestus kids may _just _live up to this. But just barely. This is a level she's never seen before. The Hephaestus and Vulcan kids are practical, working with the tools that they have on their hands. And here - she's never seen anything like this before.

"Cool, huh?" Fred says to her, grinning, as he glances over and sees her face.

She breathes out a single word: "Amazing."

"Come on, you gotta meet them," he tells her, and he grabs a wrist and hauls her to the corner; and for a moment, Reyna is tempted to flip him over because _nobody touches her. _

But it's Fred. Happy, clueless Fred.

So she lets it go.

First, he introduces her to GoGo, who is working on some kind of bike. Reyna immediately feels slightly relaxed around her. GoGo doesn't say much, just blows out bubblegum and nods and works on her electromagnetic wheels, or whatever it is. She works with a quiet determination on her bike, a quiet determination that Reyna can respect.

Then, they meet Wasabi. He gives her a quick onceover, and then asks, "God, you're not dating Fred, are you?"

Fred splutters. Reyna lets a smile flicker onto her face: "Gods, no."

Wasabi tells her about his plasma-induced ray or whatever it is he's working on, and he shows her his toolbox and his workspace, everything clearly labelled and sorted and in its place. Reyna is impressed. If only the Legion could keep themselves and their weapons like that. For sure, they're much more organised and disciplined than the Greeks, but this is a different level entirely. She's just slightly impressed.

She thinks Wasabi notices, because he beams at her brightly before Fred drags her to meet Honey Lemon.

Reyna's first thought is that Honey Lemon's just like another daughter of Aphrodite.

She soon revises that. It's clear that Honey Lemon knows what she's doing and is amazing at what she does, and her enthusiasm is catching. It's like one of Hephaestus' children, after they've built something they're particularly proud of or have been working on for long (Vulcan's children aren't so easily excited). Or maybe a daughter of Athena, if the father were easily excitable. Yes, Honey Lemon's a little touchy, but it's not so bad. Reyna thinks her work station is impressive, though she fails to see the point of a giant pink circle that explodes into pink dust.

"I've been trying to get her to make me a giant fire-breathing lizard suit," Fred tells her, "but she says it's not science."

"I highly doubt it is," Reyna says.

He makes a face. "Don't spoil the fun! Come on, there's still one last guy I want you to meet."

Fred brings her to a door in the back, and he knocks on it and calls, "Hey, man, you in there?"

"Yeah, come on in," a voice says, and Reyna's on the alert instantly because she knows that voice is familiar.

Fred grins at her, and she's still trying to figure out where she's heard the voice from before when he pushes the door open and leads her in. There's a tall guy in a jacket and a baseball cap looking down at some notes on a table, so Reyna can't see his face, but there's something about his frame and his stance that is so very familiar.

Then he turns around.

To her credit, her face remains impassive.

But his face immediately breaks out into a wide smile of recognition.

"Reyna!" he says, and Reyna can see Fred look curiously between the two of them as the tall guy moves forward, still grinning at her.

She manages a thin smile. "Tadashi."

* * *

><p><strong>thoughts? haha<strong>


	3. tadashi hamada

**hey! so here's chapter three...and thank you _everyone _who reviewed! gave motivation to work on this, and to work on chapter four. heh. **

**hope you enjoy!**

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><p>Honey Lemon's told all of them that Fred's bringing a friend over. She was practically bouncing off the walls when she glanced up from her phone.<p>

But Tadashi never thought to see Reyna with _Fred_, of all people. Wasabi? Maybe. GoGo? Even more likely. But _Fred_? It just feels kind of strange. She looks like the kind that'll judo flip him if he says a wrong word or makes an annoying or weird statement - which, to be fair, Fred often falls into the habit of doing.

He'll admit it. He's been thinking about her, on and off, for the past week.

(How can he not, really? An attractive girl wandering around the streets of San Fransokyo at eleven thirty at night, who seems perfectly capable of taking care of her own self. How can he _not _think about her?)

Okay, maybe not on and off. Maybe a whole lot.

He wonders if she was walking around the city in the middle of the night purposely looking for trouble.

"You guys know each other?" Fred asks, curiously, glancing between them both.

"Remember that night you flipped out because I came home at twelve thirty?" Reyna says. "And I told you I got a ride? Yeah. It was him."

"I certainly didn't expect you to be friends with _this _guy," Tadashi says, cheerfully, leaning against his desk. Fred rolls his eyes.

She shrugs. "Mutual friends. Been staying at his place since I got to San Fransokyo."

Suddenly Tadashi remembers the massive house, white and opulent and gleaming, and he turns to Fred, his jaw dropping: "That's _your _house?"

Fred just grins, shrugs. "Hey. It's a home, man."

* * *

><p>Somehow, Reyna ends up sitting inside Tadashi's workroom with him while Fred goes out to get his mascot suit and start sign-spinning along the pavement. Usually, she wouldn't be comfortable with sitting around in a complete stranger's workplace – especially when the other person has a greater knowledge of the base than she does. And this place is, without a doubt, where Tadashi is most comfortable, and where GoGo, Honey Lemon and Wasabi all seem to be perfectly at ease.<p>

But then she has to remind herself that she's not surrounded by enemies anymore. She's not fighting for her life anymore.

And this is _Tadashi_. If he didn't harm her in the dark of the night when she was alone, she doubts he's about to do it now in broad daylight with who-knows-how-many people wandering around outside. Besides, he's Fred's friend.

"What are you working on?" she wants to know, finding a seat and sliding herself into it.

"A nursing bot," he tells her.

She straightens up immediately, the interest on her face showing. Tadashi can't help but feel a swell of pride when he sees her reaction – most people give him strange looks when he tells them his project. She looks curious, interested – like she wants to know more. Like she thinks it's an amazing idea. "A nursing bot?" she asks. "How does it work?"

"Well, I'm still working on it, but it's meant to be a healthcare companion," he says, gesturing to the white blob of _thing _he'd been messing around with. "A robot, but one that can scan you and help you with physical hurt – and hopefully emotional as well. It's still got a couple of bugs, though. I've done at least fifty tests."

"That's a lot of determination." Reyna slides off her chair and steps closer to the bot that is meant to be Baymax. He can see hesitation on her face, wariness, but she steps around it carefully and looks over curiously. "He'll help a lot of people."

"That's the main goal," Tadashi says. "That's why I can't give up just yet, you know." He shrugs his shoulders. "He doesn't know it yet, but he's going to help a _lot _of people. There's no way I can give it up."

"And the fact that you men have your pride?" she asks, dryly. Boys never admit it, she knows, but Frank and Percy and Jason and even Nico and Will all have their pride – even though it does seem to diminish greatly when it comes to their other half. She doubts Tadashi is very much different. If he's spent fifty tests working on this, she doesn't think he will give up after that.

"Pride's secondary," he says, grinning, pointing a screwdriver at her. "Helping people first."

"It's a very noble project," she says. She thinks of the casualties during the war with Gaia; and she can see Scipio in her mind, beautiful, strong, loyal Scipio. Her hand clenches, slightly, and she repeats, softly: "A very noble project."

Reyna doesn't notice Tadashi glance up, curiously, at her words.

"Yeah, well, if I'm building something cool, it might as well be building something helpful," he tells her. "I mean, all my brother does is sit around messing around with his own projects and blowing stuff up half the time. Can you imagine?"

"You have a brother?" she asks him.

"Yeah. Hiro."

It's not long afterwards that Reyna manages to find out just about everything about Tadashi and his younger brother. She's always been good at prying information out of people – it's a skill she's had to learn. Now, she learns about his younger brother Hiro, the boy genius who's graduated high school at thirteen and currently has nothing to do with his life apart from getting into trouble. He tells her about endless projects, rocket boots on Mochi the cat, their garage/lab that Hiro builds most of his stuff, the Lucky Cat Café where they live and where they help out their Aunt Cass. He even ends up telling her about all the GPS trackers he's sewn into Hiro's jackets.

She realises that he ends up talking more about Hiro and his Aunt Cass than he does about himself. And she realises that he loves his brother Hiro. A _lot_.

"You both sound like another demi – another guy I used to know," she says, amending her words quickly. _Gods, Reyna. _

"Yeah?"

"A guy called Leo Valdez." Reyna thinks back to that time four months after the battle with Gaia, how Leo had arrived with Festus and a beautiful goddess to boot and sent the whole of both camps into uproar. The Reyna _before _the battle with Gaia would have glared at Leo icily for wrecking her New Rome. The Reyna _after _the battle forgave him – as long as he helped out with the remaining restoration.

Leo, needless to say, had agreed without a moment's hesitation. As long as Calypso could stay with him.

"He could build anything," Reyna recalls. "I never knew how he did it. None of his siblings even got close to him sometimes. Put some pieces of scrap metals and tools in his hands, and he'd get something up and running within minutes."

She can remember his story about the Valdezinator, or whatever it was called, and how he gave it to Apollo. She nearly feels sorry for the sun god. She has a feeling that the Valdezinator only ever worked for Leo.

"He sounds cool," says Tadashi, and then he grins again. "Ex-boyfriend?"

Reyna nearly scoffs. "No. No chance. He's got a girlfriend."

As does Jason, and Frank, and Percy, and Nico. And after so many years, she's still here, all alone, just like how she's always been –

_No_. She doesn't need a _boy _to define her. She's much more than that.

She can't help but admit, though, that sometimes she does wish she has someone with her.

"What's the story with you, then?" Tadashi asks, grinning at her. It's an attractive kind of grin, Reyna will admit, but she's much too hardened to have butterflies fluttering about in her stomach at a single grin. "I've talked way too much about myself. You must be bored to death."

_Bored to death_.

She'll never admit it, but sometimes the thought of death sickens her nowadays.

"There's nothing interesting about my life," she says.

"Everyone has something interesting in their lives," he says.

She wonders what she should say. It's been so _long _since she interacted with someone who _isn't _a demigod that she doesn't know what she actually can say.

For a moment, she wonders what Hazel or Nico would say, being kids from the 1940s dragged into present time. What would they do if someone asked them about their lives?

Give an adapted version of the truth.

"I lost my parents when I was young," she says. "After that, my older sister and I lived on our own, found a way to live. We worked at a – at a spa, for a few years. It got shut down, and after that we travelled on our own. And then she found a place where she was happy, and me – I found my own place, too. People to call friends. A place to live." She shrugs. "It's a good place to be."

She thinks she hasn't done _too _badly. Although she thinks maybe her time at Camp Jupiter could've been expressed better. After all, it's helped mold her into who she is.

Tadashi doesn't say anything, not for a long while.

"I lost my parents when I was young, too," he finally says. He manages a small smile: "Guess we're not that different, huh?"

_We're very different,_ she wants to tell him. This is only the second time she's met Tadashi Hamada, but she can never imagine Tadashi willingly hurting _anyone _– unless, perhaps, it's in defence for his younger brother. He's not that type of guy. She's learnt to read people quickly, after all. Her, on the other hand? She's killed. She's fought. She's destroyed. She's more or less slaughtered her own father.

_Murderer_.

"What happened to your sister?" he asks, when she doesn't answer.

Reyna shrugs. "She's – " For a moment she hesitates, then continues. "She works at Amazon. One of the top."

"Do you get free shipping?" Tadashi wants to know, grinning.

Reyna just smiles. "Not telling."

"That's not fair," complains Tadashi. "Hiro and me, we try to get some stuff from there online sometimes, but they don't usually stock what we need. It's so difficult to get hold of."

Reyna thinks of the many other supplies that the Amazons keep in their warehouses, the kind of supplies that mortals would never dream of.

"If you want," she offers, "I can see if Hylla can find it."

She doesn't think Hylla would mind. They don't ask each other for favours much. And sometimes, they still communicate – though not very often. It'll be nice to get in touch with Hylla Twice-Kill again.

Tadashi's whole face lights up. "Really?"

She nods. "Yeah."

"That's amazing!"

His whole face is lit up so brightly now with his smile, Reyna has to wince. She doesn't think she's ever seen anyone smile that widely before.

Except, perhaps, everyone still alive after the Giant War. But that's a different matter entirely.

* * *

><p>Tadashi asks her if she wants to go grab lunch with him and the rest of his friends. She agrees, mainly because Fred'll be there too, and she knows him best out of them all.<p>

So they go, Reyna and Tadashi and Honey Lemon and GoGo and Fred and Wasabi, and she lets herself drift to the back as she walks behind them, her eyes darting from one person to the next and to their surroundings.

But Fred doesn't let her hang back on her own. He falls into step next to her.

"So?" he wants to know. "How was your morning at the nerd lab?"

"Interesting," Reyna admits. "I mostly talked to Tadashi, though."

"Oh?" Fred raises his eyebrows, and wriggles them. "Tadashi, huh?"

"You do remember that he gave me a ride home at midnight."

"And when the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella must flee from the ball and her Prince Charming – "

"Shut it, Godzilla."

"My costume is _not _Godzilla! It's – "

"Shush. Save it, Godzilla."

Fred makes a face. Reyna shoves his shoulder.

She's never felt quite this comfortable around anyone before, except, maybe, with the exception of Nico or Frank. Fred's so easy to be around.

And it's easy to relax, when Fred's friends are so easy to be around, too. When they get to some place where, as Fred insists, they serve the best burgers in the whole of San Fransokyo, she watches, and she listens, as Wasabi and GoGo begin to argue. She watches and she listens as Honey Lemon talks to Tadashi and to Fred, snapping away with her phone camera. She watches and she listens as they all talk – all of them trying to get Fred to shut up about his comic books, all of them sharing a bit about their own projects and their progress.

Reyna finds herself smiling more than she's done in a long time.

Sure, she has friends in the Legion. She has friends in Camp Jupiter. But this group of college kids are a different thing entirely.

And then it happens.

"Is that a _tattoo_?" Honey Lemon's eyes are wide, staring at the inside of Reyna's forearm.

Almost instantly, Reyna pulls her jacket sleeve down, nearly dropping her burger. _Damn_. The parallel lines, with the crossed torch and sword and SPQR on them. How can she have forgotten that she still has them on her arm, clear as day?

Of course. Because she's used to walking around in surroundings with people who have them as well.

"Yes," she says, shortly. She can already feel her face closing up, hardening. She doesn't want questions. Perhaps, though, she can get away with it as a normal tattoo, even if her marks do seem like branding of sorts.

"Cool," GoGo pops her bubblegum, takes it out and sticks onto the tray so she can sip her soda. "What are they?"

For a moment, Reyna hesitates. "SPQR," she says, finally. "Senatus Populusque Romanus. The Senate and People of Rome."

"Rome?" Wasabi asks.

Reyna nods. "Ancient Rome. The torch and the sword are the symbol of the Roman war goddess, Bellona."

"Wow," says Honey Lemon. "You really like Ancient Rome, don't you?"

Reyna only smiles thinly. She can feel her shields going back up, her mask dropping into place; and what's more, she thinks that Fred and Tadashi can sense it too. She can feel Fred looking at her concernedly from next to her, Tadashi glancing over worriedly from across the table.

Fred, she can understand. After all, she's known him for a while now, and she's staying at his house. He's really not oblivious as he seems - he's pretty attuned to people's feelings. But Tadashi? She's only met him twice. It's scary how he seems to be able to read her.

"You okay?" Tadashi asks her.

She manages a smile. "Yeah. I'm okay."

* * *

><p>After lunch, Tadashi asks her if she wants to go grab a coffee with him. She tells him she doesn't drink coffee.<p>

He tells her there's this cafe not far away that sells great hot chocolate, if she drinks that sort of thing.

Reyna decides to take up his offer.

* * *

><p><strong>soo...any comments? haha<strong>


	4. chocolate and coffee

**hey! thanks for the response, guys. ahh, i love reyna sooo much. (i'll admit it - i was really kind of disappointed with BoO. even though it was great learning more about reyna and nico.)**

**and thank you soo much for the reviews! **

**(and don't worry, i will have the other PJO characters show up. i was thinking maybe nico because, you know, _nico_. maybe thalia. and hylla, ohmygoodness definitely hylla. maybe i'll get a dakota drunk on kool-aid to appear, too.) **

**anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! wanted to work more on tadashi and reyna moments.**

* * *

><p>Sometimes, she will wake up with nightmares.<p>

Some nights, she will dream of Scipio, of their flight searching for the Argo II, of the pain that overtakes her, of the pain she still drowns in, every time she remembers putting him out of his pain.

Some nights, she will dream of San Juan. Of her father, of the ghosts that haunt her; of the Hunters and of the Amazons, of Hylla. Of Phoebe and Celyn and Naomi, of Kinzie and so many others. Some nights, she will dream of Orion. She will dream of the war, of the endless fighting, of golden dust as she strikes through another monster, of the blood spilling over the ground, of the pain and reality of war.

Of terror. Of horror. Of pain.

Of losing everyone and everything.

Some nights, it is difficult to control her dreams.

Some nights, it is hard to breathe and it is hard to choke back the tears because _pain blood wounds terror fear death it hurts. _

She wakes up, on nights like these. She wakes up, and she trains. Discipline. Order. Method. Fighting for something greater than yourself.

At times like this, she misses Camp Jupiter, and she misses New Rome.

She misses her family.

* * *

><p>Reyna's not exactly sure <em>when <em>she starts spending so much time in SFIT, exactly.

She still takes to wandering around the city in the day, of course. And most days she still works in the gym, or outside on the grounds – she's learnt that Heathcliff won't disturb her if asked, not even for lunch or a tray of drinks, and with Fred in his mascot suit at the college all day, she can finally take out her weapons, her _real _weapons, again.

It's strange to find how much she misses it. Lashing out with her blade, twisting with her knives, swiping at ogres that aren't there.

It's a familiar rhythm, one she's forgotten just how much she loves.

On some days, though, she'll head to SFIT to wait for Fred, and more increasingly, talk to his friends, or just watch them as they work. It's fascinating to watch them all work on their projects – Honey Lemon and her million and one beakers, Wasabi and his laser-induced plasma (or something like that), GoGo and her bike with her electromagnetic suspension wheels. It ends up so that she ends up spending more time at SFIT than at anywhere else.

And, even more increasingly, she finds herself spending time in Tadashi's workroom with him.

"What prompted you to create Baymax?"

"I always wanted to help people. And he just seemed like the best way to be able to do it."

"That's very noble."

"Think you said that before, too." He grins at her. "What's the deal with you and Fred?"

"Fred and me," she corrects automatically. "What are you talking about?"

"You know. Two of you, living in a large, fancy mansion with the whole place to yourselves…"

Is it just her, or is there an undercurrent of something else in his tone?

"He knows a friend of mine. She knew I wanted to get out, so she offered to ask him."

"But why here? Why wouldn't you just stay with a friend of yours?"

"I wanted to be in a place where no one would know me."

"That sounds lonely."

"Maybe. But it's different. It's – refreshing."

"Living in a huge city with a person you hardly know?"

"Being with Fred is better than being alone."

Tadashi laughs at that, before his face turns serious. "But didn't you think it was dangerous? And lonely?"

"Danger is just another aspect of life. And being alone is nothing."

"It sounds like a sad way to live."

"A sad way to live?"

"Yeah. Thinking that it doesn't matter whether you throw yourself into something dangerous. Talking about being alone like it doesn't matter." Tadashi shrugs, glances at her over his blueprints. She's seated on a chair, her leg pulled up as she tilts her head.

What is it about Tadashi Hamada that makes her question everything she's ever known?

She doesn't think she's met anyone quite like him before. Sure, she's met plenty of people, all heroes in their own way. Nico, who's sacrificed so much for people who don't seem to realise just how much he's done; Percy, the reckless, ridiculous fool; Jason, the dutiful, all-American boy; Piper, who trusts so much in love; Annabeth, who is all about logic and understanding; and Hazel who is so very innocent but so very _clear_, and Frank who is good and kind and so very Roman.

But Tadashi – Tadashi is different. It's a good different, though, she thinks.

He makes her _hopeful._ She doesn't know hopeful for what, or how he does it, but there is just something about him that makes her hopeful. He is foolish to be so trusting and hopeful, but he doesn't give up. He hopes. He makes people hope, too.

"I just wanted a change," she says, finally. "And my friends, they weren't very happy with it, but they knew they couldn't stop me. So they did the next best thing."

"They got you a place that wasn't too far from home," Tadashi guesses.

"You could say that."

She'll never admit it, but she misses them. She misses Frank, and Hazel, and Jason, and Piper, and Annabeth and Percy, and Nico. Gods, she misses Nico _so _much.

"You wanna get some coffee?" Tadashi asks her, suddenly, pushing back away from Baymax and glancing over to smile at her. She can't help but smile back, softly.

There is something about Tadashi Hamada that makes her relax. That makes her smile.

"Okay," she agrees.

* * *

><p>For some reason, she ends up going with Tadashi to get coffee often.<p>

Not that she drinks a lot of it. Whenever they go out, she always gets hot chocolate. It's a familiar piece of home for her, nights spent in New Rome and looking out over Camp Jupiter, over her family. Some nights, Hazel would join her, and once in a while Frank would, as well. And every time Nico came over, he would spend the time with her.

Tadashi doesn't drink hot chocolate. As far as Reyna can tell, he lives on coffee. He tells her it's one of the few things that get him to keep awake, and what with his trouble-finding brother and working on Baymax and his studies, he can't afford to sleep that often.

It ends up as a routine. Most days, whenever she's in the lab, he gets her to go out and get a drink with him. Some days he'll bring her around San Fransokyo, telling her about this coffee place or that restaurant. Some days, they'll just grab Styrofoam cups of coffee and hot chocolate, and they walk along the pavement or they sit in the park.

He's kind. He genuinely cares about people. He genuinely wants to help. He has a hero complex. He gets mad when someone he loves does something stupid that could harm themselves. He's persistent. He's always ordering new kinds of coffee and tries to get her to try it, to admit that maybe some kinds of coffee are pretty good.

She rolls her eyes and sips, but she always goes back to her hot chocolate.

He'll grin, and he'll tell her about things that _aren't _about him. It's not an evasive action to avoid talking about himself, like how Reyna always steers the topic away from herself as much as possible. He genuinely cares about others and about the world more than he cares about himself.

He's not brash or rude or immature. He's thoughtful.

It's nice, she supposes. It's not so bad talking to Tadashi Hamada.

* * *

><p>Tadashi learns one day that she likes chocolate. A <em>lot<em>.

He already knows that she likes hot chocolate. But chocolate itself? That's a whole new level.

Hiro has stuffed some chocolate into his bag, with a scrawled note saying _to help you stay awake at nerd school_. Tadashi's touched. He hasn't realised that Hiro's noticed how much later he comes home every night, or how exhausted he's been.

When Reyna comes in that day, her dark hair swinging in a braid down her back, something flips in his stomach.

It is not like she's an unfamiliar sight. For maybe the past two, three weeks, she comes in here a lot, usually hanging around outside or in the workroom where Tadashi continues on Baymax. She only ever comes in after lunch, in a dark leather jacket and dark jeans and with her sharp eyes glancing around the room, instantly zooming in on anything that looks different.

He doesn't know what it is about her that makes him beam at her every time she chooses to walk into his workroom and sit on a chair.

Reyna keeps her expressions controlled, her emotions nearly non-existent. Sure, she talks – but most of the time, she twists the conversation around so that they end up _not _talking about her. Somehow, it gets Tadashi only even more fascinated with her.

He knows he's probably crazy. He doesn't even know her that well. All he knows is that she's got a pretty crappy childhood, and that she isn't so good with expressing herself, and that she and her older sister don't keep in touch a lot, and that she's got friends whom she still chooses to distance herself from.

And that she doesn't like bright colours. And she likes order and discipline. And that she doesn't like coffee, and she likes waffles. And that she likes those ancient Roman and Greek stories a lot. And she doesn't smile that often, but when she smiles it's like everything else just seems to get a little brighter along with her too. And she's strong. And she believes in loyalty, and in discipline, and she's compassionate.

Even after hours spent with her, almost everything he knows about her is still superficial.

Today, he offers her a piece of chocolate.

It's like her whole face lights up.

"You like chocolate, huh?" he grins, as he hands her the square of chocolate.

She just smiles, shrugs. "Chocolate's universal," she says, as she bites into it. "There was this place where I used to stay – gods, they had the most _amazing _hot chocolate."

The smile on her face is just a little sad.

"You miss it," Tadashi says. "And your friends."

Reyna swallows the last of the chocolate. "Yeah," she admits. "Yeah, I do."

"You wanna talk about it?" he offers. "I mean, I know you don't really like talking about yourself. But, you know, if you want to. Since you're here in self-imposed exile, anyway."

She smiles again at that, and he thinks hopefully, for a moment, that she's about to laugh – but she just smiles.

And then, abruptly, her phone rings, loud and clear.

She tenses up, suddenly, as if her phone ringing isn't something she's used to. As if it's a danger.

Tadashi's face falls as she reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls it out. Reyna stares at the screen almost warily before sliding her finger across it and answering, curtly, sharply: "Reyna."

There's the crackle of a voice on the other end, and suddenly, her whole face lights up again, even more brightly than when he passed her the chocolate. He wonders, for a moment, if it's her family, but the voice is distinctly male and he knows that she only has a sister.

He guesses that it has to be a friend. But _just _friends won't get that kind of reaction from Reyna. Would they?

"Nico," she says, and her voice holds more warmth than Tadashi has ever heard before. Suddenly, he's annoyed. He's very, very annoyed. Who the hell _is _this guy? "How are you?"

It's getting more and more difficult to work on Baymax. He can hear her asking about some people called Jason and Piper, and about Annabeth and Percy, and Frank and Hazel. He hears her ask after a guy called Will, listens as she gets this Nico guy to tell her about what's happening to him.

"Coach Hedge did _what_?"

And then – she _laughs_.

Tadashi nearly freezes up.

Sure, he's heard her laugh before, like that first night when he dropped her off, when all he knew about her was her name and that she was like no one he had ever met before. But this – he can hear genuine warmth, and happiness, and something in him twists.

He wishes he could get her to laugh like that.

"Yeah, I'm doing great," he hears her say. "Yes, di Angelo, I've made friends. Don't sound so surprised. Yeah, Rachel's friend is great. That's right, Fred. He's obsessed with comic books and superheroes. Maybe he knows how to play that Mythomagic game, too. Hey, it's not _that _embarrassing. Me? I just roam around a lot. Train in his family mansion. They have a gym and obstacle course. I go out to the university, too. _No_, di Angelo, I just hang around their lab a lot. Yes, they're great people. No, you don't have to send an army of zombies after them to make sure they're okay."

At that, Tadashi looks up sharply, and he catches the sight of the wry grin on Reyna's face, sent his way.

"Look what you did. I think he's judging me for mentioning the army of zombies," she says into the phone. "No, not Fred. His friend."

"I'm not judging," Tadashi says, automatically.

Reyna just smiles at him, a wide, warm smile, and something in his stomach flips over. _She should smile a lot more_.

"If that's Will, you should go," she says into the phone. "Yeah. I miss you too. Bye."

The smile on her face remains even as she hangs up and slides the phone back into her jacket pocket.

The annoyance is rising in Tadashi again, as he turns back to Baymax. "Boyfriend?" he finds himself asking, glaring angrily at the diagrams in his hands.

There's a soft chuckle from behind his back. "Boyfriend?"

Tadashi shrugs, still refusing to look at her. "Yeah. That was your boyfriend?"

"Nico?" There's no doubt about it, she definitely sounds amused, but her voice also sounds so very far away, like she's distracted. "No, no. He's – he's a younger brother, if you will."

A younger brother.

Almost immediately, he can feel himself relax, his brain starting to make sense again as he gazes at the diagrams.

"So – no boyfriend?" he asks, trying to keep his tone light.

There's the sound of something shifting, like she's shrugging her shoulders.

"Never had one," she says.

His head whips around at that, his eyes wide in surprise. "You're kidding."

Almost at once, he can see that he's embarrassed her; but it's gone in a flash, her expression turning smooth as stone.

"I don't need a boy to define me," she says.

"No," he says hurriedly. "No, I didn't mean that at all. It's just – you're – you're really great, you know. Pretty – pretty amazing." He swallows, and he's only vaguely aware of her eyes widening just slightly as she absorbs his words. "I mean – well – yeah. You're pretty cool. You're fantastic." He nods, raises a hand to the back of his head, nervously. "I'm just – I'm just going to continue working on Baymax here."

He turns back, and he's pretty sure his face is bright red as he glances down at his diagrams again.

"Thanks," she says, quietly. It sounds uncertain, nervous, almost. But there's something so very _genuine _about it.

It feels like there's a balloon swelling up inside him.

"It's the truth," he finds himself saying.

She doesn't say anything to that. But he hopes she's smiling.

* * *

><p>He convinces her to get dinner with him one night.<p>

She wanders into the nerd lab in the evening, her eyes bright and with her dark leather jacket and, to his shock, steel-tipped combat boots.

"Is that _steel_?" he asks, when she walks into his workroom, the silver glinting in the fluorescent light.

She glances down, as if not really noticing. "Yeah."

"Why do you have steel-tipped combat boots?"

"I wear them all the time, Tadashi."

"Why am I only noticing _now_?"

"Clearly, your observation skills are top-notch." She smiles at him, a faint smile. Gods, he is cute when he's looking lost and confused.

Almost immediately, she banishes the thought. She is _not _going to get butterflies in her stomach just because of some boy. She doesn't need that.

He tells her that the others have all left to grab dinner, that he's still here because he's nearly done with Baymax. He tells her that they'll be coming back later, and he asks her if she wants to go grab dinner with him.

She raises an eyebrow. "Dinner?"

"Yeah." He tries to fight down the heat that is rushing to his face, tries to keep himself composed. "There's a good pizza place not far from here."

She slides her hands into her jacket pockets, raises an eyebrow, and she smiles.

"Okay."

* * *

><p>They're fighting over the last slice of pizza when the GPS tracker goes off.<p>

Tadashi glances down at his phone, and his eyes widen. "Oh, shit."

Reyna freezes, and almost instinctively her eyes gaze around the restaurant, almost as if looking out for something. "What is it?"

"My brother." Tadashi jumps to his feet, hurriedly dragging on his jacket. "The GPS tracker – he's just gone into one of the shadiest areas in the city – "

"Isn't your brother fourteen?" Reyna asks, and she scoops up the pizza as he hurries over to the counter, dragging out his wallet.

"Yeah," Tadashi mutters. "Look, I'm really sorry, I can't drop you off, I have to get to Hiro, I've no idea what kind of trouble he might have gotten himself into – "

"I'm going with you," Reyna cuts in, sharply. At Tadashi opening his mouth to protest, she says, smoothly, "I can take care of myself. You know I can. And if he really is in a shady area, you never know if you'll need help."

"Reyna – "

"Shut up and pay. I'll wait for you by your scooter."

She doesn't give him much chance to argue. She shoves the remainder of the last slice of pizza into his mouth and stalks out the door, like a woman on a mission.

_Whoa._

Tadashi thinks even the word _unbelievable _may not be able to sum up Reyna entirely.

* * *

><p><strong>soo...what do you think?<strong>

**and to Lemon Dropz: seriously, how do you do it? i was already thinking of Reyna coming in and seriously kicking ass during the bot fighting scene haha because c'mon _reyna_. and thanks! oh and yes i never thought of baymax scanning her but that sounds really cool. and about leo - actually, he's in past tense because, you know, reyna's just thinking about him and the last time she met him and stuff. she does keep in contact, but she is in san fransokyo for a break away from everything. so, not so much keeping in contact. yep.**

**thanks so much! **


	5. bot fights

**hey! first up, thanks for all the reviews, guys! they were fantastic.**

**anyway, yes, here is the anticipated bot fighting scene! i've tried to do it justice, i really, really did my best. but i still feel kind of disappointed with it. it feels kind of, i don't know, anti-climatic to me. maybe that's because i'm the author, though, haha. orrr maybe not.**

**anyway, well; hope you guys still enjoy it.**

**i hope you like it!**

* * *

><p>Tadashi's never driven so fast before.<p>

Sure, sometimes GoGo takes him out for a spin on her bike, telling him to "Woman up!" and actually speed up. Whatever. He doesn't like things to go too fast. Things, he thinks, need to be taken slowly sometimes.

Like right now, he really wishes he could drive just a little slower because Reyna's arms are wrapped around his waist and he _really _hopes she can't feel his heart pounding furiously. Because that would be really embarrassing. Because her arms are long and slender and muscular through her dark leather jacket and wrapped tightly around him and he really wants to make this moment last as long as possible.

But _Hiro_. For God's sake, what has his little brother gotten himself into now?

Damn. It's difficult to concentrate when Reyna is pressed against him with her arms around him. She doesn't smell of chemicals and flowers like Honey Lemon (an interesting combination, but a nice one nonetheless), or of bubblegum and motor oil like GoGo (again, not a bad combination); she smells, somehow, like cinnamon and chocolate and jelly beans and mint. He doesn't even know if that makes any sense, because it doesn't make sense to him _at all_, but there it is.

And damn, is it addictive.

He glances down at the screen with the blinking GPS tracker, speeds through the alleyways. Focus. _Focus_! Think of Hiro.

Then he hears Reyna say, "There," and her arms tighten around his waist as he speeds towards the four bulky figures surrounding his shaggy-haired brother, grinning sheepishly.

_Hiro_!

"Hang on – " he says, and he's about to speed up –

And then, quite suddenly, the arms around him disappear and a figure is soaring through the air above him, a figure in a dark leather jacket and steel-tipped combat boots and with a long dark braid of hair.

* * *

><p>Has she ever mentioned how much she loves her combat boots?<p>

Very effective, very useful. And since only the tips are steel, not very heavy, either.

A wonderful investment, really.

She kicks off from Tadashi's scooter, leaping over his head and the bright shining lights to land in the middle of about four, large, thug-looking men surrounding a small, skinny boy. Mortals – no real threat – the kind who only know how to throw a punch, and not a very good one at that. She assesses them easily, quickly, and then she lashes out.

She knocks down the first guy easily enough, quickly enough, slamming into him and knocking him down – a punch across the face, a strike to his chest and shoulders, a swift kick. He collapses immediately.

The dark-haired boy who looks so much like Tadashi glances up in shock – and for a moment, Reyna thinks that he looks so very much like Nico, small and scrawny and pale with that head of messy dark hair.

"What the – "

She leaps onto the next guy easily enough. A swift punch, a hard kick, and he's staggering against the guy behind him. She almost wants to laugh – this is easy, this is fun, this is _wonderful_. Training in Fred's house is one thing – actually taking down someone again is another.

She always thought she'd never miss fighting down monsters, but she supposes she's been fighting too long for anything else.

And these people call themselves thugs?

Yes, she really does feel like laughing.

* * *

><p>Tadashi skids into the crowd of people, half his mind fixed on Hiro, the other on Reyna spinning around and kicking one of the bulky men in the stomach, sending him flying backwards, and she twirls around again to block a blow from the last guy.<p>

Oh, god.

There is something very terrifying and very, very thrilling about her as she blocks another punch and sends the guy back into the wall.

He vaguely registers that it is probably ridiculous to think that someone can be so terrifying and so damn attractive and hot at the same time while violently taking down a bunch of thugs who outnumber her.

_Focus_, his brain screams into his head as he screeches to a halt.

"Hiro, get on!"

"Tadashi! Good timing!" It takes seconds for his scrawny younger brother to scramble up onto the back of the scooter, Tadashi slamming the helmet down on his head and over his eyes. _Why _does Hiro insist on putting him through this?

"I'll catch up," Reyna says, nodding at Tadashi, before her eyes snap over to one of the bulky guys staggering up and lumbering over.

"What? No – "

"Make a U-turn at the end of the alleyway, it's a dead end," she says, and he wonders, for a moment, how she can see that from so far away. "Go!"

* * *

><p>Hiro watches, open-mouthed, as the dark-haired girl in the dark leather jacket spins around and kicks one of the bulkier men, hard, in the stomach, and he keels over and grunts; and then she uses the tip of her boots, gleaming in the fading light, to take another swing at the last of Yama's men. She elbows them, twists around, her arms and legs moving swiftly, and then they stagger to the ground.<p>

_Whoa_.

He loses sight of her as Tadashi skids down the alleyway, clearly against his better judgement.

"You okay?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you hurt?"

"No!"

"Then what were you thinking?" Tadashi demands, and twists around, hammering his younger brother: "Knucklehead!"

* * *

><p>It takes a moment for Tadashi to realise that Reyna is dragging out the fight. He races towards them, Hiro clinging on tightly to him, and he can see it; the way she ducks, the way she's on defense rather than being offensive. Her movements are slow, measured – almost as if she's amusing herself in her fight.<p>

When she looks up and catches sight of Tadashi and Hiro heading her way, though, he notices she smirks.

The guys don't stand a chance. It doesn't even take thirty seconds for her to knock them all out, just as Tadashi sails up the ramp with Hiro clinging onto him, and he yells, "Reyna!"

She sails up onto the bike effortlessly as it crashes back down onto the ground, hoisting herself up behind Hiro and balancing herself on the back, not even out of breath, her hair only slightly mussed.

Hiro interrupts Tadashi's lecture to say excitedly: "That was _so sick_!"

* * *

><p>"Bot fighting is illegal! You're gonna get yourself arrested!"<p>

Reyna keeps one ear open on the conversation, the other on her surroundings.

"Bot fighting's _not_ illegal! Betting on bot-fighting, that's – _that's _illegal – but so lucrative!"

She can't help the small smile on her face.

"I am on a _roll, _big brother,and there's no stopping me!"

That's when the bike skids to a halt, and Reyna has to pinch the bridge of her nose tightly, silently, at the sight of the police cars clogging up the exit to the alley.

* * *

><p>Tadashi doesn't know who he's more pissed at – Reyna, Hiro, or himself.<p>

He should've been keeping a closer watch on that GPS tracker. He should've put his foot down and insisted that Reyna shouldn't have come along.

And Hiro should know better than to go get himself involved in illegal bot-fighting!

And Reyna – she should know better than to jump off a scooter moving at a ridiculously fast speed!

Even though she totally kicked ass. Which, Tadashi has to admit, is kind of hot, and scarily attractive –

_Focus_!

He glares at Hiro threw the bars of the cell, as the fourteen-year-old sits and grins back at him weakly, waving. Tadashi is pretty sure there's someone staring at his ass, and hell, he _never _wants to be stuck in here again.

Yes, he decides. This is all Hiro's fault.

He hears a laugh, suddenly, and his eyes flicker up to see Reyna talking to one of the female police officers, who is trying to stifle a chuckle. Reyna has a wry smile on her face, and when Tadashi looks up, she glances over.

_Getting you out of here_, she mouths, and she turns her attention back to the female police officer she's talking to.

_What?_

* * *

><p>It takes a while, but they're finally out.<p>

Tadashi sends one last glare at the overly-crowded jail cell he'd been forced into, before grabbing his brother by his hoodie to make sure the idiot doesn't run off.

"Who's that girl?" Hiro wants to know. He's not trying to escape, and Tadashi hopes that Reyna's existence has captured Hiro's attention for the time being; apart, of course, from the fact that they're in the _damn police station_.

Well, to be honest, he'd be pretty interested himself. What Reyna had done, back in that alleyway – he's going to have a hard time trying not to figure out anything more about her than he already knows.

Tadashi, who's been searching the station for Reyna before they go out and face the wrath of Aunt Cass, tells him, "Reyna. She's a friend of one of my friends at college."

"So she's _not _from your nerd school?"

"No."

"She's seriously kickass."

There's awe in Hiro's voice.

"You're telling me," Tadashi says. "And no thanks to you, she was stuck in here with us, too."

"She looked like she could take care of herself," Hiro protests.

It's then that Reyna comes out of a door with the female police officer she was talking to earlier. There's a smile on her face still, and Tadashi can recognise the look on the female police officer's face – a kind of longing look, the kind he gets when he's remembering happier times.

"Thanks, Gwen," he hears Reyna say.

"Take care of yourself, praetor," he hears the police officer say, and he frowns slightly at the word: _praetor_? "Don't get yourself involved in this kind of thing. Thought you knew better than that." There's a grin on her face.

The smile on Reyna's face grows wider slightly. "I'm out of that place, Gwen, and I'm done with my responsibilities for the day. I think I have a right to be reckless."

"You definitely deserve a bit of fun," the police officer Gwen agrees. "Go on, get home. I'll IM you, or you can IM me, or whatever, when you're free. There's a café I go to a lot. It's pretty good. The food's fantastic – and the donuts, they're amazing. I bet Blackjack would love them."

"Will do," Reyna promises, and then her eyes fall on Tadashi. "Hey."

"You jumped off my bike," Tadashi finds himself saying. "When I was trying to speed up. And you jumped back on it before I even hit the ground!"

He looks at her, pointedly.

Reyna chuckles, suddenly, and _hell no that is not his heart rate increasing rapidly_. "I didn't get hurt."

"You could have!" he argues. Suddenly something in his hand wriggles, and he realises it's Hiro, who is staring at Reyna with wide eyes. _Right_. Best way to introduce your little brother to your friend – after nearly getting her arrested. "Reyna, this is my brother, Hiro. Hiro, Reyna."

"Nice to finally meet you," Reyna says, and despite the fact that they're in a police station, there's a look on her face that isn't so guarded; and Tadashi realises that she really _does _mean what she's saying.

"That was _amazing_!" Hiro tells her, his eyes wide and fixed on her face. A smile twitches on Reyna's lips, and suddenly Tadashi is finding it very difficult to tear his gaze away from her mouth. _Not good. Really not good._ How does she get to look so attractive when she's hardly even smiling? "How did you _do _that? You just jumped off his scooter and you were taking on those thugs like nobody's business – "

"Hand-to-hand combat is useful," supplies the police officer Gwen, and she grins at Hiro. "Bot fighting's a dangerous world, kid. Don't get mixed up in it if you can, but if you do, get a bodyguard and a quick way out of there."

Tadashi finally manages to tear his eyes away from Reyna and gapes at Gwen instead.

"Gwen," Reyna says, reproachfully. "Don't encourage him. Look at Tadashi's face."

Gwen laughs. "I'm kidding, kid, don't listen to me. Listen to your big brother." She nods, sagely, in Tadashi's direction. "Family's important." Her eyes flicker to Reyna.

"It is."

"I can give you a ride back home," Tadashi offers, looking at Reyna. He _really _should be walking out of that station and giving Hiro an earful. Well, he can still yell at Hiro later. And Aunt Cass will probably yell at them both, too, which they totally deserve. But Reyna's here right now and she's here because of him.

Reyna shakes her head. "It's okay. I can get back on my own." The smile twitches on her face again. "Besides, didn't you get your license revoked for a month or something?"

His face falls, and he glares pointedly at Hiro. "Yes. Yes I did."

"I'll go back with you," Gwen says to Reyna. "I knock off soon." And then she turns to Tadashi: "Don't worry, I'll settle your bike for you. You can get it from the station tomorrow, considering, you know, the fact that you weren't actually taking part in the bot fight."

Tadashi blinks at her in disbelief: "Wow. Thanks."

She beams at him: "No problem!" Then she turns and jabs a finger at Reyna: "And you wait for me. I'll get you to wherever you need to go."

"Thanks, Gwen."

"Don't mention it. I want to hear all about Dakota and how my cohort's doing, and Nico, and Jason, and everyone!" Gwen disappears through another doorway, calling out, "Don't you dare leave without me!"

It's just Tadashi and Reyna, and Hiro with his hood still in Tadashi's grasp.

"I'm sorry," Tadashi tells her. "About getting you messed up in this."

Another smile flickers on Reyna's face. "It's fine," she says. "It was fun. And I ran into an old friend of mine, so – "

"Fun?" Hiro interrupts, eyes wide. "You have a pretty sick version of fun."

Reyna only shrugs, but the smile is still on her face.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Tadashi asks her, almost hopefully.

There's a strange look on her face.

"I'm not sure if – "

"I can call you," he suggests. "I mean – if you want to grab a coffee or something. I feel really bad for getting you into this mess."

Reyna looks at him for a long moment, and _shit _Tadashi thinks the tip of his ears must be burning and his face is probably completely red –

"You can get my number from Fred," she says, finally. "He should have it."

"If he doesn't?"

The smile is on her face again, but it's a more careful, guarded smile, and Tadashi wonders if he's blown it. Maybe he's freaked her out. After all, she's eighteen or something? Seventeen or eighteen. And he's nearly twenty. Maybe she finds him creepy. Maybe she never wants to talk to him again. Maybe she –

He blinks to see her grabbing a marker from the police station counter and scribbling something onto Hiro's hand.

"Make sure your brother gets that," she tells him, and her eyes flicker up to meet Tadashi's and there is a genuine smile on her face: "I'm not sure if that marker's waterproof."

_Shit_. She's noticed him sweating like crazy. This is really, _really _embarrassing.

But, okay. It can totally be explained by the fact that he's in a police station. _Not _because of Reyna.

Hiro grins, a cocky kind of grin. "Do I get to call you too?"

Reyna raises her eyebrows. "No."

His face falls.

"But – "

"Maybe when I get to know you better."

"You're on," he promises, and there's that smile on Reyna's face again and there is something bubbling in Tadashi that feels a lot like relief.

"You guys should go," she says. "I think I can hear a woman about to march in yelling about her nephews."

Their faces pale.

"We should go," Hiro mutters.

Tadashi's eyes meet Reyna's one last time, dark and guarded but with a bright light in them for once. "I'll call you," he promises.

Reyna just smiles again, and they're led outside before Aunt Cass can burst through the doors.

* * *

><p>"I like her," Hiro says, as he collapses onto his chair and swivels around to face the computer screen.<p>

Tadashi pauses in his "I hope you've learnt your lesson" speech and frowns. "What?"

"Don't act stupid," Hiro grins as he spins around. "You know. Reyna." He holds up his hand. "You _do _want her number, right?"

"Took it down in the car," Tadashi says, automatically, and then grins. "I'm a lot faster than you think, knucklehead."

Hiro rolls his eyes, turns back to the screen. "Fine. But I like her."

Tadashi can't help the smile on his face.

"Yeah. I like her too."


	6. baymax

**hey guys, thanks for the reviews and favs and follows and everything! here is a virtual cookie. omnom. **

**here is my christmas present for you guys!**

**(even though i don't, you know, celebrate christmas. yeah.)**

**and to Lemon Dropz (okay i know you posted this in the review on my second Dani/Hiro story, but I'm not planning to update that tonight and stuff, so, yeah): ohmygoodness i'm so touched you realised i wasn't around for the past week (': anyway, no, it wasn't finals! haven't had lessons since mid november. i was actually on vacation. i thought i'd be able to update, because i had my laptop and everything, but for some reason the villa wifi couldn't access . yeah. **

**anyway, i hope you guys enjoy this chapter! i'm so excited to write about the showcase asdfghjkl**

* * *

><p>"So…that guy's kind of cute."<p>

Reyna grins as she stares out the window, Gwen's car sailing through the now-familiar streets of San Fransokyo as the older demigod weaves her way through them. She's been expecting this, after Gwen's interrogation on Camp Jupiter, New Rome, and Dakota. "I think he's a bit too young for you."

"Just right for you, though," Gwen laughs. "What's his name again? Tadashi? C'mon, Reyna, you have to admit he really is kind of cute!"

"His ears are too big for his head."

"Details." Gwen waves a hand dismissively, turning a corner. "Besides, he seems like a really good guy. Didn't you say he was there because of his brother? That's some serious brotherly love right there. Really sounds like a good catch."

"Gwen."

"C'mon, praetor. I saw Nico a while back. Before your move here, though, apparently." Gwen glances over at her from the driver's seat. "He told me you're still single."

"And that's a surprise?"

"Don't be like that! You know you're better than that."

"I don't need a boy to define me, Gwen." _This sentence sounds familiar_.

"I'm not saying you do," Gwen says, defensively. "But dating can be fun. And he seems like a good guy. Besides, honestly, I think it's really about trusting yourself to another person. Friendship is one thing. A relationship is another."

"I've noticed," Reyna says, dryly. "Why are you here in San Fransokyo, anyway?"

"Oh, you know. My mortal family stays around here. Thought it'd be good to bond with them again after so many years in New Rome." Gwen shrugs. "And you?"

"I just needed to get away."

"I get how you feel." Gwen chuckles. "It's too much, after a while."

"Percy and Annabeth seem very content in New Rome, though."

"No offence, but the Greeks don't have anything like what we have," Gwen points out. "You know – the community, a safe place to live, everything. They spend their whole teenage years, and possibly half their childhoods, fending for themselves. They _need _a safe haven to call home."

"And we're prepared for war, but live in a safe environment."

"Good to be prepared," Gwen says, cheerfully, as she pulls up in front of Fred's mansion. She lowers her gaze and peers out the window, letting out a low whistle. "Whoa."

"Yeah. A friend of Rachel Dare's."

"The Oracle of Delphi? Wow. Her family's loaded, too?"

"You have no idea." Reyna shrugs her shoulders, and she slides out of the car. "I'll IM you?"

Gwen nods: "Useful invention of the Greeks, that one." Then she grins: "You sure about that Tadashi guy? He seems pretty fascinated with you. And _so _easy on the eyes."

Reyna rolls her eyes. "Bye, Gwen."

"Until next time, praetor!"

There's the sound of the laugh and then Gwen's speeding away, into the night and the bright city lights.

Reyna stands there on the pavement for a while, her hands in the pockets in the leather jacket, smiling after her.

* * *

><p>It's late in the night when her phone buzzes from an unknown number. Reyna looks at the screen cautiously, warily, before sliding her finger across the glowing light: "Hello?"<p>

"Reyna!" It's Tadashi's voice, excited, and sounding ridiculously happy: "You won't believe it! Hiro's determined to get into SFIT now!"

For a moment she blinks in surprise. Tadashi is calling her half an hour to midnight to tell her _this_, of all things? Sure, she will consider the two of them as _friends_, but she's only met Hiro tonight. It's not like she even knows Tadashi that well – or like he knows her that well, either.

She thinks of Gwen's words.

_Really sounds like a good catch._

_He seems pretty fascinated with you_.

She rolls her eyes and dismisses the older girl's words. Tadashi is her friend, nothing more. Ever since she's come to San Fransokyo and met Fred and his friends – well, she'll admit that she's getting more relaxed. It's good to have people just to talk to.

In another corner of San Fransokyo, Tadashi stares at the ceiling in disbelief as he holds his phone to his ear, waiting for a response. No, no, no, no – what was he _thinking_? Sure, Reyna's his friend, but does she even consider him a close enough friend for him to be calling her at this kind of hour, about his _brother_, and especially only hours after he's nearly gotten her arrested?

Suddenly there is a voice on the other end: "What did you do?"

Her voice sounds, he almost sighs with relief, amused.

"He wanted to go to another bot fight, can you believe it?" he says to her, and he can feel a smile flickering over his face: "Even after what happened earlier today! So I told him I would take him, and in the end I took him over to SFIT because I had 'to get some stuff'." He grins triumphantly. "'Course, he saw everyone's projects, and, well, he's pretty set on getting in now."

"Very sneaky," she comments. "Very cunning."

"And very successful," he says.

"You're far more cunning than I gave you credit for." _How un-Roman like_, she thinks, but there is a smile on her face as she leans back on the pillows and stares up at the ceiling, out through the window where the moon shines.

They end up talking for a ridiculously long time, and the next time Reyna glances at the clock, after Tadashi's asked her if she wants to see the now-completed Baymax, after she hears feet dragging along the corridor outside that has to belong to Fred, she realises it's nearly one am.

"Gods of Olympus, how _long _have we been talking?" she demands, bolting upright from where she's been sprawled across the bed. Pluto's underpants (okay, this is getting out of hand, she is _definitely _spending far too much time with Nico), this is getting ridiculous. Yes, she does like feeling relaxed around Tadashi and Fred and his friends, but for a whole hour and a half to have passed without her realising?

"Gods of Olympus?" comes the laughing voice on the other end. "Now that's one I've never heard before."

"Yeah, you're not very likely to hear it often, either," Reyna grumbles.

Tadashi just laughs again, and there is what sounds like a nervous clearing of his throat on the other end: "Hey, so, I was thinking, if you wanna see Baymax completed tomorrow, maybe you want to have breakfast at my aunt's café first? The Lucky Cat Café. It's great, it's got amazing donuts and hot chocolate, you know, I mean, if you want to – "

Tadashi swallows.

"Sounds great."

"Really?" he says, loudly, excitedly, before he hears a snore from across the loft and he lowers his voice: "That's great! I'll see you at – nine? Is that too early?"

"No, nine's fine," she says. "I'll get Fred to give me directions."

"Yeah, sure, he knows the way!" Tadashi is practically beaming in the darkness. "See you then! I guess I should hang up, it's getting really late – "

"Yeah, yeah we should."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

There's a pause, and then low chuckles from both ends. Tadashi can't help the massive smile splitting his face. "Good night, Reyna."

"Good night, Tadashi."

* * *

><p>The next morning, Fred is rudely awoken at seven forty-five by someone rolling him out of his bed.<p>

"Wh-what?" he mutters, trying to burrow himself back into his blankets, which have rolled with him down onto the ground. There's a soft mutter that sounds suspiciously like Reyna, and the blankets are yanked off and tossed to the other side of the room.

"What?" he repeats, whining this time, flat on his back as he finally forces his eyes open, squinting at the figure leaning against his bed. He was right – it _is _Reyna, in her usual leather jacket and with her braid over her shoulder.

He notices something different right away.

For one thing, she looks – _happier_. Fred's not completely blind, he can _see _that when she first came, she had a load of things on her mind, and ever since she came, she's been relaxing gradually. But now – she looks just plain happy. Relaxed.

For another, she is wearing shorts. Denim shorts. Not that she doesn't look good in shorts – she looks great, actually. Very nice. It is, however, a surprising change from her usual array of sweatpants (when she's in the gym) and jeans (whenever she actually steps out of the mansion).

"You're wearing shorts," he says, dumbly, propping himself upright.

"I am," she agrees. "Don't be a pervert, Fred. Get off the floor. I need you to tell me how to get to the Lucky Cat Café."

"To the Lucky Cat - ?" Fred squints at her for a moment, before he beams: "Oh, _now _I get it! You have a date with Tadashi, don't you?"

"What?" Reyna raises her eyebrows at him, crosses her arms. Apart from her eyebrows, her expression doesn't change, but Fred likes to think that there is an embarrassed light in her eyes. "No. He invited me for breakfast, that's all."

"No, no, no. Nothing else needs to be said, my friend." Fred manages to scramble to his feet, ignoring the fact that he is in his custom-made pajamas with Fredzilla all over them breathing fire. In most cases, he supposes that a girl finding him in these pajamas would be totally embarrassing. But he's not used to having girls in his room, and heck, this is _Reyna_. Sure, she's only been around for a couple of weeks, but if there's one thing he likes best about Reyna apart from the fact that she really is nice under that if-you-touch-me-I-will-kill-you exterior and her badass-ness, it's that she doesn't _judge_. "I will totally get you to your date on time."

"It's not a date."

"Yeah, and GoGo's going to install brakes on her bike," Fred scoffs.

* * *

><p>Fred keeps it up all the way as they walk to the Lucky Cat Café nearly forty-five minutes later, telling her that she <em>has <em>to tell him all about her date when it's done and he personally doesn't think his aunt's café is the best place for a first date but hey, this is Tadashi, and that he can totally fix them up for dinner at a fancy restaurant for their second date or whatever –

"Fred," she says, "if you don't shut up, I _will _judo flip you."

It doesn't quite have the desired effect.

"You can judo flip me? That's _awesome_!"

He proceeds to tell her how they are, in his eyes, a perfect couple, because Tadashi is the good college pretty boy genius and Reyna is like a badass, dark and glamorous ninja and it can be totally like one of his comics where she's a vigilante and she gets all her super cool secret ninja equipment from her genius boyfriend Tadashi –

Somehow, Reyna manages to resist the temptation to break his arm.

* * *

><p>Tadashi is waiting for her at the counter, leaning against it as he talks to a pretty woman with wavy brown hair and bright eyes. Reyna can see the resemblance immediately. This must be his aunt, the owner of the café.<p>

"So," Fred drawls, "I'll see you guys, like, later, okay? Don't have too much fun without me!"

He's out the door before Reyna can say anything, and there is a smile twitching at her lips as she drifts over to the counter, sliding a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

Tadashi straightens up immediately when he sees her: "Reyna! Hi!"

"Hey."

"Oh, so _you're _Reyna!" The woman says, eagerly, excitedly. "Hi! I'm Tadashi's Aunt Cass – you can just call me Cass, okay? It's so nice to finally meet you, Tadashi never stops talking about you – "

"_Aunt Cass_!"

There is no doubt about it, Tadashi's face is unnaturally flushed, and Reyna can feel the heat creeping up into her cheeks. _He seems pretty fascinated with you_.

Could Gwen be right - ?

_No,_ Reyna tells herself, firmly. She is _not _about to risk her friendship with Tadashi, just like how she's nearly risked her friendship with Jason and Percy, over a possible _what-if_. She is _not_.

"I hear you like hot chocolate and waffles," Cass is saying to her now. "And I'm not bragging, but our hot chocolate is _fantastic _– oh, and our donuts, too – "

How does she know - ?

Reyna turns an accusing glare on Tadashi, who is grinning at her sheepishly: "I might have, uh, mentioned a few things."

She can't help it. The heat spreads across her face, and she is sure she looks flushed, but she composes herself. She is Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, and she is _not _about to turn into some blushing, incoherent mess just because of a _boy_.

"A hot chocolate would be great," she says, finally. "And I love waffles and donuts."

* * *

><p>"Your aunt's really nice."<p>

They have elected to walk to SFIT, as Gwen still hasn't managed to get Tadashi's moped back for him. Reyna carries a paper bag full of donuts in her hand and a Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate in the other, and Tadashi is munching on his own donut as he strides alongside her.

She thinks of Guido, suddenly, and Blackjack.

"She's really great," he tells her. "She didn't know the first thing about children when she took us in, you know, but she's amazing." He breaks into a grin: "We probably gave her more trouble than she ever expected."

"Two boys with a flair for inventing and for crazy ideas growing up in the same household," Reyna says. "I wonder what could've happened?"

Tadashi just laughs. "It wasn't pretty, that I can tell you."

It's a nice walk to SFIT, and even though the city is far different from New Rome and from Camp Jupiter and she doesn't have Aurum and Argentum striding by her side, and her cloak is not billowing out behind her, and she is not greeted with the sight of familiar demigod faces around her, it is so – so _comfortable_, somehow.

It's more comfortable than Reyna has been in a long time.

It's more comfortable than she can remember being in a long time.

* * *

><p>"So," she says, when she has finally settled on one of the chairs in his lab, sliding the last donut back into the bag and glancing up at Tadashi, "how is Baymax?"<p>

"I'll show you." He grins at her, then turns to the red box below the window. "Think you can let out a convincing cry of pain?"

A smile tugs at Reyna's lips. "How about I make _you _give out the cry of pain?"

Tadashi blinks at her, just for a moment. And then he remembers the previous night in the alleyway, and he swallows slightly: "You're not going to give me a concussion, are you?"

She laughs at that, and oh dear god, it is a nice laugh. It is a really wonderful laugh.

"Ow," she says to the red box, and she grins back at Tadashi: "I can't promise not sending you to the hospital."

She should really smile more, he thinks.

It takes seconds for Baymax to inflate, for Reyna's eyes to grow wide, for him to waddle his way over to her.

"Hello," Baymax says. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said _ow_."

Reyna raises her eyebrows at Tadashi, who stands behind Baymax, beaming at her excitedly – and again she feels that smile tugging at her lips.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Baymax wants to know.

"Does this include physical pain alone?" she wants to know, grinning slightly. Tadashi makes a face at her.

"I will scan you now," Baymax informs her – and in that moment, Reyna's eyes grow wide.

"Wait – no – "

"Scan complete."

_Please don't sense old injuries. Please don't sense old injuries – _

"I have detected an increase in your heart rate," says Baymax. "This increase is consistent with signs of agitation. You also have multiple wounds that have yet to be treated with the proper medical procedures, as well as previously healed ribs, legs and arms which have been broken, fractured and sprained multiple times. Previous injuries also include multiple stab wounds, lacerations, arrow wounds, gun shots, burns, as well as other wounds of an unidentified nature. I would advise – "

"Wait, _what_?" Tadashi cuts in abruptly, and Reyna can see his brown eyes wide with something very much like shock, and there is something that looks very much like horror on his face: "Stab wounds, lacerations, gun shots, arrow wounds? Burns? Wounds of an unidentified nature? Reyna, what – "

"Enough," she snaps, because _no no no _this is not how things are meant to be. She can feel something heavy settling on her, she can feel cold and this is _too much_. She has to shut Baymax off before he can continue – what did Tadashi say about deactivating him –

"I am satisfied with my care," she says, and it is without another word that Baymax turns and waddles back to his box.

Reyna can't bring herself to look at Tadashi, and instead focuses her gaze on the crumpled paper bag that still holds the last of her donuts. Clearly nectar and ambrosia and her unicorn draught, though having healed her fully, are not considered proper medical procedures to treat the injuries she's sustained over the years.

And Baymax can sense this. How can Baymax sense this?

She can remember endless battles, she can remember attacks in dark alleyways, she can remember her father, she can remember Scipio and their journey, she can remember transporting the Athena Parthenos all the way to Camp Half-Blood with Nico and Coach Hedge, she can remember fighting side by side with Jason, she can remember learning from Hylla and battling and learning from pirates, and _no this is too much this is too much she is here to get away not to remember she doesn't want to remember – _

This is wrong, this is wrong on so many levels –

"Reyna?" Tadashi asks, quietly, taking a step closer to her. "Is this why – is this why you know how to fight so well?"

"Yes," she mutters, finally, ad she can't look at him, she _can't_. "My sister and I spent a lot of time fending for ourselves. And – and it's an essential skill, where I grew up. We were always getting into scrapes."

"_Scrapes_?" Tadashi repeats, his voice an octave higher. "Reyna, where would you even _get _arrow wounds? Breaking your leg and your ribs multiple times? And – and stab wounds, and gun shots? Reyna, those aren't scrapes – "

"They're nothing. They're healed. We just didn't use the kind of medical procedure Baymax would have recognised."

"Reyna – "

"Look, I _don't _want to talk about it, okay?"

She is _not _crying. She is not. She is not going to cry, not here, not ever.

She is not going to cry just because of wounds that have healed long ago, she is not going to cry because of a stupid marshmallow healthcare robot, she is _not _going to cry just because of some _boy _who has too much worry and concern in his voice.

She has cried herself out long ago, for things that she has lost, things that could have been. She has cried for her Legion, she has cried for the Greeks, she has cried for the people of New Rome, she has cried for the Hunters, for the Amazons.

She has cried for everyone she has lost, for the home she has never been able to find.

She has cried, and she has fought, and she is _not _about to start sobbing like some weak-willed moron just because she is reminded of her injuries and of how she is a demigod and she is praetor and there are ghosts in her past that she can never escape.

She is not about to start crying just because of injuries and scars that are etched into her skin that are a part of who she is and who she is meant to be and all that she will ever be.

"Reyna."

She won't look up. She won't –

And then there are warm arms holding her, tightly, and she stiffens; but Tadashi doesn't let her go. He pulls her close to him, lets her rest her head on his shoulder as she remains stiff, unresponsive.

"It's okay," he says, into her hair. "I won't ask you, if you don't want to talk about it. But – I'm always here, you know? If you need me, or if you need someone to talk to. Or just, you know, if you need someone to be around."

Something catches in her throat, and for the love of Apollo's terrible haikus (clearly, this is evidence that she is spending far too much time with the Greeks), she buries her face into his shoulder and she can feel herself shuddering, shivering, her body wracking with sobs she's too proud to cry.

"It's okay," he says, and his voice is soft, comforting, low. "It's okay."

* * *

><p><strong>was the breakdown too much? what do you guys think?<strong>


	7. gummy bears in the garage

**hey there! i really wanted to say - thank you _so much _for all the reviews, all the favs and the follows, everything. _especially _the reviews. **

**i'm so sorry it's been forever since i updated (well, forever to me, anyway), but i've seriously been swamped with work, what with it being the first week of school and all! **

**i'm no good at replying to each and every review, but i just want you to know that i appreciate every single one of them. really. no worries, tadashi won't die on my watch (pfft i love him too much for that). and apart from that...well, this story's kind of in progress, and also, i don't want to spoil anything! everything will happen in its own time. and everyone shall know everything in its own time. heh.**

**and to lemon dropz - about what you said about physical relationships in my Tadashi-centric fics...well, it's something i didn't really notice, but i'm definitely taking that into consideration! thanks haha. i guess i've always just thought of tadashi being superbly awkward at that kind of stuff since he's such a nice guy and has such a big brother compex. i don't know. haha. but thanks for pointing it out!**

* * *

><p>She ends up spending a lot of time at the Lucky Cat Café.<p>

It's a comforting place to be. It's busy, but never _too _busy, and after a while Cass shows her a place in the corner where she can just seat herself down with a mug of hot chocolate, and occasionally a packet of jelly beans. She can sit down in peace, and she can mull over her thoughts, and she can stare out at the window at the hundreds of mortals passing by every day. Some evenings, Cass even hauls her in to help out, usually as a waitress. Thank the gods for all those years fighting, _and _the years at Circe's island - she doesn't just need her quick reflexes here, she needs to remember how to act around so many people and customers, too.

The fact that Tadashi is almost always there, now that it's summer, is an added bonus.

She doesn't bring up the incident with Baymax.

He does, at first. At least, he tries to. Reyna doesn't let him get very far.

"It's my past," she tells him, stubbornly. "I'm okay."

"You're not," he insists. "Reyna, you can't keep everything bottled up inside of you – "

"I _don't_."

"Then why the breakdown?"

"Once," is all she says. "It happened _once_."

"Reyna – "

"No, Tadashi."

He changes the topic, then. Tells her how Hiro spends days up in his room, trying to come up with a brilliant idea for the SFIT showcase. How he's probably gone through at least four notebooks drawing up and tossing aside ideas. Tells her about GoGo nearly crashing into Professor Callaghan when she jumped off the roof with her bike. How he found a whole box of gummy bears under Hiro's bed. How Hiro had once tried to convince him to buy a huge, sixty-five dollar giant gummy bear.

He doesn't give up, though. Every once in a while, he'll try to ask her about her past again.

She shuts down every time.

* * *

><p>Tadashi calls Reyna most nights.<p>

It happens after she breaks down in front of Baymax. He doesn't know what to do, he doesn't know what he _can _do; he only knows how to hold her, to hug her, just like how he's always been there for Hiro.

So he calls her up that night.

She sounds sullen, closed up, that first night. It's not like the night before, where one and a half hours flew by in the blink of an eye, and only Hiro's agitated snores told him how late it was. That first night, she hangs up after nearly twenty minutes.

He doesn't give up.

He calls again the next night, even though she's spent the day at the Lucky Cat Café. This time, he manages to get her to smile, he _knows _he has; he can hear it in the slight pauses before she answers, the occasional low chuckle she lets out. He tells her stupid stories, he tells her how Hiro once tried to give his teddy bear superpowers, he tells her how he used to fall asleep with Hiro and end up freezing with a mop of black hair peeking out under a sushi roll of his blankets next to him.

She doesn't volunteer much. Over those phone calls, he doesn't pry so much.

But she tells him things, just a bit.

She tells him about Annabeth. She tells him about Piper, and Jason, and Percy, and Frank and Leo and Hazel. She tells him a lot about Nico di Angelo, too, and that's when Tadashi realises something.

They're all her friends. Sure they are. But they've all got someone placed _above _her. Annabeth has Percy, and she's closer to Piper and Hazel. Piper has Jason (Tadashi thinks he hears something off in Reyna's voice when she mentions this), and she's closer to Annabeth and Hazel. Jason has Piper, and he's close to Percy, and Frank has Hazel and even though he works with her, Hazel is always, always first for him. And it goes on.

The only people Tadashi thinks Reyna really truly cares for more than anyone or anything else are Nico and Jason. But Nico's got a boyfriend, and Jason's got a girlfriend, and they've all got friends closer than Reyna.

Tadashi thinks it's got to hurt.

For him, he's always got Hiro. And he knows that Reyna has an older sister, too. But he can tell that Reyna isn't so close to Hylla, and he thinks that that must hurt.

And he knows that she hurts, deep down. She is hurting, and she is in pain, and she closes herself off. She doesn't let anyone in. She's got too much, far too much.

He's not going to give up on her.

* * *

><p>Cass just <em>knows <em>there is something wrong with Tadashi and Reyna.

She likes the girl. Sure, Reyna's a little quiet, a little sullen. She looks like she's seen far more than anyone her age should have. Cass can understand that. Tadashi's the same. He's been forced to grow up, far too quickly.

But somehow, Reyna seems more broken. More broken, but at the same time, much stronger.

Cass can't help but think, though, that the girl looks so very fragile, sometimes.

She can see, though, that something is different, the day Reyna comes in, after Tadashi's shown her Baymax. She can remember the day before when she met Reyna for the very first time, she can remember how much Tadashi smiled when she walked in; heck, Cass can remember how much Tadashi _talked _about the girl. And she can remember how the tension seemed to unravel from Reyna's shoulders the minute she turned to Tadashi.

Now, though, it's different.

Tadashi doesn't smile as much. He looks worried.

Reyna still looks tense. She looks like she's ready to flee at a moment's notice; or to stand and fight.

There's a look in Reyna's eyes that's all too familiar, of course. Cass has seen the same look in Tadashi's eyes after his parents' death.

The only difference is that Tadashi has learnt to heal. The look has never completely faded; but Tadashi has healed.

Reyna hasn't.

* * *

><p>It's past eight when Reyna sails in one night, her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket and her hair in a braid down her shoulder. Honestly, Cass will never understand why the girl insists on wearing that jacket everywhere – but maybe it offers her a feeling of protection. Just like how Tadashi never takes his baseball cap off, if he can help it.<p>

"Hi, Miss Hamada." Reyna comes up to the counter, leans her arms against it.

"Reyna!" Cass manages to beam at the dark girl, and then sighs: "Can you believe it, the two of them _still _haven't eaten dinner! Hiro's still up there trying to find some brilliant idea, and Tadashi, my college man, he's refusing to come down until Hiro does – "

"If you have dinner for them," Reyna says, "I could bring it up for you. If you want."

It's the first evening that Reyna spends up in the Hamada brothers' room.

She carries up a tray full of food, only to find Tadashi yanking Hiro off his chair and hanging up down his back by his ankles, jabbering on about something that sounds a lot like "Look for a new angle!" Hiro is struggling to escape, but he's laughing as well, the same bright, happy smile on his face that Reyna always sees on Tadashi, and she has to stop at the top of the stairs and lean against the wall and smile.

Suddenly Hiro falls silent, and his head tilts upwards as he stares at something on his desk very hard.

It's at that moment that Tadashi turns around, catches sight of her, and promptly lets go of Hiro.

It's not for nothing that Reyna is one of the best fighters in the Twelfth Legion, or one of the fastest. In a flash, the heavy tray is slid onto the table and she's sliding across the smooth wooden boards that make up the floor, catching Hiro just before his head crashes onto the ground.

"Reyna!" Hiro manages to wheeze out, as the older girl gets to her feet, gracefully, and hauls Hiro up next to her.

"Hiro." She nods, once; and then her gaze turns to Tadashi, who looks so very sheepish that she can't help the small smile on her face. "Tadashi."

"Hey, Reyna," he says, grinning, distractedly – how did she _get _there so fast? "Um, sorry, bro."

"Not forgiven," Hiro grumbles.

"At least you've got an idea, right?" Tadashi says, his voice turning just a bit more cheerful, and he turns to Reyna: "How come you're up here?"

"I offered to bring up your dinner for you. Your aunt's freaking out."

Tadashi sighs: "Right. Dinner."

They end up eating dinner on the floor, the three of them, eating lasagne and gulping down water and talking. Hiro doesn't do much talking; it's clear that his brain is whirring, and once he's eaten he's back at his desk, scrawling across papers, his head bent low over his work.

"He looks determined," says Reyna.

Tadashi just grins proudly, and looks over. "Yeah, see what he can do once he puts his mind to it? I bet he'll open up the garage tomorrow to start working on his project, whatever he's finally planned to do." He looks over at Hiro, fondly.

"Sounds fun."

"You're welcome to join us, if you want," Tadashi offers. "It's no trouble."

"I can't help much. I'm no good with science, or robotics."

"Neither is Fred."

"Fred's enthusiastic. I'm not."

"Aw, c'mon! You never minded dropping by SFIT and talking to us for hours." Tadashi glances around, and then lowers his voice, grinning: "Besides, I think Hiro would like to see you again."

"You don't know that."

"Really! He wouldn't stop asking about you that first night. If you bring him a bag of gummy bears, that's even better."

"Gummy bears, huh?"

"Gummy bears," Tadashi nods, and somehow, for some reason, they've ended up so that he and Reyna are leaning against the wall, side by side, and his heart goes _thumpthumpthump _as he realises just how close they're sitting, and oh god, just how good she smells.

_Focus, Tadashi_!

She tilts her head, and her braid drops nearer towards him, and he has to inhale, slowly.

_Focus_.

"I'll think about it."

* * *

><p>She does show up, of course.<p>

She doesn't contribute much. She's not a major science enthusiast like Fred, and from previous days in the lab, they all know just how much she knows about science – which is practically nothing.

She spends a lot of the time just listening.

It doesn't take much to include her in a conversation. Fred's always ready to drag her in, and Honey Lemon's always talking to her excitedly, and she's got an easy, laidback friendship with GoGo. She gets along great with Wasabi, and when she's with Hiro, the whole gang can see her transform – she's not just quiet and moody with a rare smile thrown in, she actually grins and chases him around the garage and occasionally tackles him.

Even if it's just Hiro down there, she still curls up on a chair, watching him work and listening to him talk out loud.

She stays later than anyone else, and she usually stays long after Fred. She sits in her corner and listens, and she shares pizza and sushi and brings over cookies and donuts from the café, and once she brings a bowl of gummy bears over for Hiro. She almost always has a cup of chocolate and a packet of jelly beans, and she tells Tadashi about her dogs Aurum and Argentum and how much she misses them.

The first time she falls asleep on Tadashi, they're in the garage/lab. They've been in there for hours, and Reyna's curled up on a sofa that Fred's dragged in, next to Tadashi, as the college student listens to Hiro's ideas, frowning in concentration.

She ends up falling asleep with her head on his shoulder, her hair tumbling down her back.

When he wakes her up, a few hours later, it's to find him and Hiro waiting with a pack of jelly beans and a Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate.

"Oh, gods." She can feel her face flame up as she lifts her head hurriedly, edges away. What's _happened _to her? She's a fighter, a warrior for Rome; she's trained to fall asleep and jump up at a moment's notice. How did she fall asleep on Tadashi's shoulder and only be waking up _now_? "I'm sorry – "

"It's fine," he assures her, and he can't tell her that he hasn't dared to move because he didn't want to disturb her, because she looks so much more _peaceful _when she's asleep and that he couldn't stop staring at her. Definitely not. That would just be creepy. "You seemed tired."

"I was," she admits.

Tadashi just grins. "See? No harm done, _and _you got a good rest. And Hiro's got you your favourite snacks."

He wriggles his eyebrows at her, and Reyna can't help but chuckle slightly.

* * *

><p>It's a couple of days later that Tadashi and Reyna end up going into the café with an indignant, unforgiving Hiro behind them, still mourning over the loss of his last slice of pizza.<p>

"It's just pizza," Reyna says.

"It's the best pizza in San Fransokyo," Hiro says, glumly. "I can't believe you let Tadashi eat it!"

"What do you mean, I _let _Tadashi eat it?"

"I bet you could've taken it back if you wanted to," Hiro grumbles. "You just have a soft spot for him. You didn't let Fred take away my pizza two days ago."

"You're keeping track?" Reyna asks, pointedly ignoring Hiro's statement of having a soft spot for Tadashi. Tadashi and Hiro are brothers – of course she lets them have their fun. That's all. It's not like she has a particularly soft spot for the older Hamada.

"Of course I am," says Hiro. "It's pizza! And you and Tadashi totally owe me some."

"Pizza twice in three days? That's got to be a record."

It's this last voice that causes Reyna to freeze up just as she's about to lean against the counter as she usually does, before Cass ropes her in to help out at the café like how she's done these past few weeks.

She knows that voice. She knows that voice like the back of her hand, from hours spent together fighting, training, talking, discussing, arguing.

Next to her, she can feel Tadashi and Hiro already looking at the figure – no, figures – behind her, eyebrows raised, their faces holding something like surprise.

And carefully, slowly, cautiously, Reyna turns around.

And they're there. Just the two of them, but she's known that already – just the two of them, the beautiful, dark girl with multi-coloured eyes and feathers in her hair, her hand entangled in a taller, muscular blond boy's, gold-rimmed glasses on his face, both of them smiling so brightly that Tadashi thinks their faces look like they're about to break.

Piper McLean flings her arms around the daughter of Bellona, a familiar hug that Reyna finds herself sinking into almost instantly, a warm hug that she finds that she's missed even more that she remembered.

Behind her, the blond boy smiles even wider.

"Hey there, praetor," says Jason Grace.


	8. observations made, conclusions gathered

**hello guys! so here it is - the next chapter of _healing_! it took me like four tries before i came up with something i was actually somewhat-happy with. oh, the pain. **

**anyway, thank you all for the reviews and favs and follows - ESPECIALLY the reviews! even though i don't always reply them, i want to let you guys know that they really mean a lot to me. **

**okay, so here is the chapter that i'm somewhat-happy with. it's more of a filler, i suppose. but don't worry - the SFIT showcase _is _coming up soon, and _dundundun - _you'll find out what happens when a certain someone decides to set a building on fire! **

* * *

><p>It feels like it's been an age since she's last seen Jason and Piper. Jason is the same as he's been since the end of the war with Gaia – not as Roman as he's always been, but essentially the same Jason underneath, the one who's always seemed to follow the rules but always really wanted to go against them in his own way, annoyingly reckless and brave. Piper, too, looks almost exactly the same, with her multi-coloured eyes and feathers in her hair, clear-headed and kind and thoughtful, though a little emotional at times.<p>

Like right now.

"I'm happy to see you too," Reyna says, as she disentangles herself from Piper's arms.

"You don't sound like it!"

Jason lets out a snort at that. "And how often does Reyna let her emotions into her voice?" he wants to know, as he gives the girl a one-armed hug, having successfully dragged Piper's arms away from Reyna. "It's good to see you, Rey."

"I could say the same to you both," says Reyna. "What are you _doing _here?"

"Doing a bit of research," says Jason. "It's summer, and we thought we'd take a short break from the camps. I'm trying to find out about my – well – my mum, before she died. And before she met my dad. We found out that she stayed here for a couple of months before she met my dad."

Reyna nods, and Jason is grateful for that. She doesn't ask endless questions, the way so many others have. She's accepted his decision, respected it, just like how they've always done with each other.

She moves on to her next question.

"How did you find me here?"

"Nico," says Piper. "He told us you hang out at this place called the Lucky Cat Café a lot. I thought you'd be with Rachel's friend, though – "

"Fred," says Reyna instantly. "No, I – "

"I forgot to tell you, Fred says he's coming over later."

It is Hiro, now peering out from behind Reyna's shoulders, happily slotting a gummy bear into his mouth. It isn't without some amusement that Reyna finds that Hiro seems to be having a hard time tearing his gaze away from Piper.

Reyna risks a glance at Tadashi, now leaning against an empty table. His face is curious, his eyes bright, and for some strange reason, Reyna finds herself oddly relieved by the fact that he isn't gawking at Piper.

"This is Hiro," Reyna tells Jason and Piper, reaching over and ruffling the younger boy's hair before taking a handful of gummy bears for herself, much to his indignation. "And – "

"I'm Tadashi Hamada," introduces Tadashi, stepping forward and offering his hand. "I'm a friend of Fred's, from college. You must be Jason and Piper."

Piper, who has just dropped Tadashi's hand, blinks in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Reyna talks about you guys a lot," Tadashi tells her, sliding his hands into the pockets of his pants, grinning at her. "I could recognise you guys from her description. Feathers in your hair and multi-coloured eyes with a fashion sense all your own – definitely Piper McLean. And Jason Grace, the all-American boy."

"All-American boy?" Jason repeats, indignantly, turning to face Reyna, who is leaning on Hiro with her elbow on his shoulder and helping herself to more gummy bears.

"You do," Reyna protests, popping a gummy bear into her mouth even as Hiro grumbles. "The impression just got even stronger after I met your sister. You can't blame me for seeing you as the all-American boy. You give off the vibe."

"Piper! Back me up, would you?"

Jason turns to his girlfriend, but for one of the strangest reasons, Piper isn't responding. In fact, she isn't even looking at him – and considering that she's always ready to help out someone making fun of him, this is very, _very _strange.

No, she's looking at Tadashi with an almost curious look in her eyes. Normally, Jason doesn't appreciate it when Piper looks at other guys intently (which, thankfully, isn't very often), but her eyes keep flickering from Tadashi to Reyna and back again.

And that's when Jason notices something else.

It's the way that Tadashi is looking at Reyna. It's the same way that Percy looks at Annabeth, the same way Frank looks at Hazel, Nico at Will and Will at Nico. And there's something else, too. It's the way that Tadashi stands around her; as if he's ready to jump to her defence if there's even the slightest hint of danger, not standing over her protectively, but as if he's there for her and will be, if she ever needs him.

Jason knows he isn't just imagining this. He mayn't be as good at reading people as Annabeth and Reyna are, but he's pretty good at it all the same.

This college guy is totally head over heels for Reyna.

"I agree with Reyna," he suddenly hears Piper's familiar voice saying, and his eyes snap up to see Piper grinning at him, almost smirking: "You _do _bring to mind an image of the kind, now that it's brought up."

"Women," says Jason, throwing his hands up.

* * *

><p>They're introduced to Cass Hamada, and Piper has to blink at how easy Reyna is around the Hamadas. After the war with Gaia, the praetor's been much easier to be around – with Frank sharing the workload, and Nico constantly visiting, and the friends and connections she's made with Camp Half-Blood, Reyna's been a little more open about her feelings, her emotions. But she's also always still been closed up, reserved.<p>

At the Lucky Cat Café, it's different.

She talks easily, she smiles easily, she laughs easily. Cass sends Reyna hunting for donuts and she sets out endless cups of hot chocolate, Hiro spends half his time trying to keep his gummy bears away from Reyna and gives the girl a packet of jelly beans instead.

And Tadashi?

Piper doesn't know how to say it any other way than the fact that he keeps himself close to her. He's always there, just one step behind her, telling her something that makes her smile or prompting her to turn around and say something to him. He's just – _there_.

Piper is not blind to what this means.

After all, she _is _the daughter of the goddess of love.

When they sit down, Hiro and Tadashi join them, so Reyna shares first. She tells them about Fred's mansion ("I think it might even beat yours, McLean") and she tells them about Fred ("Think Valdez, but less annoying") and she tells them about the robotics lab at SFIT ("I think Cabin Nine might like that place, or Annabeth's siblings - it isn't half-bad."). She talks about Cass Hamada's donuts and she talks about the city, blazing and bright and endless, and she talks about Tadashi's and the other students' projects.

"A healthcare companion?" Jason repeats, eyes widening slightly behind his glasses. "Why, out of all the things you could build, would you want to build a personal healthcare companion?"

Piper's been with him long enough to know that Jason is impressed by Tadashi's decision to create Baymax, despite the way he's chosen to phrase his question – and this is just his wanting to know _why_.

She has to admit that she's pretty curious as well.

Tadashi shrugs.

"It seems like the right thing," he says. "I want to help people. But I can't help everyone all the time, and I don't have exactly all the knowledge or skills required to do that, either. So I thought of Baymax."

There is a pause, and then he adds, "He's only good for physical injuries, though. I've been trying to find a way to get him to be able to help others emotionally as well."

Jason doesn't miss the way that Reyna's hand clenches around her hot chocolate suddenly, or the way her smile has suddenly become fixed and her eyes slightly glassy.

* * *

><p>It's a while later that Hiro and Tadashi finally leave, thanks to Hiro's having a sudden brainwave for his showcase project for his application into SFIT, and Tadashi's followed to make sure that "Hiro doesn't end up breaking something, now that he's high on gummy bears."<p>

They do share stories from camp – how Demeter's kids decided to give Nico's cabin a 'makeover', saying that with Will spending so much time in his cabin, it was necessary to brighten things up. Reyna chokes on her donut as they tell her about how Nico came back one day to find his cabin overgrown with all kinds of bright flowers, and it was only thanks to Will that Nico didn't flare up immediately.

"I mean, you know his problems with Demeter," says Jason.

"He ended up redecorating their garden," recalls Piper, trying to hold back a laugh. "You should've seen their faces when they came back from dinner and found skeletons planting undead plants and re-doing their entire garden!"

They tell her about how Coach Hedge has been teaching the fauns at Camp Jupiter martial arts.

Reyna's grateful she's not in New Rome.

They talk to her about Leo and Calypso's garage and workshop. They tell her about Percy and Annabeth having been forced to watch Finding Nemo with the younger campers (Chiron's idea), and how Percy spent two weeks learning to speak whale before Annabeth reminded him that 'whale language' did not technically exist and besides, he didn't need it anyway. They bring up Connor and Travis Stoll, and the endless pranks they've played on Camp Jupiter since she's left.

When they finally run out of stories to share, it's Piper who leans across the table and raises an eyebrow. "So," she says. "You and Tadashi?"

"Friends," is Reyna's immediate response.

"He likes you," says Piper.

"As a friend."

"Don't argue with me on this, Reyna," Piper protests, leaning on her hand. "The poor guy is completely besotted with you. I can tell."

"We're friends, Piper. That's all there is to it."

She doesn't give them the opportunity to press the point.

* * *

><p>Reyna leaves with a tall, lanky guy in a beanie, and in one look Jason can already tell why he and Rachel Elizabeth Dare get along so well. Rachel hasn't been the Oracle, not for a long time, but no one has the heart to turn her away from the camps and she's still a frequent visitor.<p>

They stop by the garage on their way out, Piper and Jason with them, to say goodbye to Tadashi and Hiro. Jason gets a glimpse of a cool, high-tech lab with holographic images and what looks like huge bins and a reclining chair and a sofa, and he has to let out a low whistle.

Piper has a cell, and she makes Reyna promise to find another day to meet up and talk with them before they leave the city, and she makes Reyna promise that she'll bring them around one day while they're still here. Fred offers them a place to stay, but Piper tells him that they have somewhere to stay, too – her dad's got some apartment in some high-class area of the city – and they part ways just as they wave goodbye to Hiro and Tadashi.

They're at the end of the street when a voice calls out from behind them, "Hey, you guys have a minute?"

It's Tadashi Hamada.

He comes to a stop just as they turn around.

"Tadashi," says Piper, and Jason can hear the confused note in her voice. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Well, yes. I mean, no, not really, but – yes, kind of."

They look at him blankly, and Jason notices just how nervous the older boy looks.

"I was wondering – " Tadashi takes a deep breath. "Is Reyna – I mean – is she okay? It's just that when I brought her to see Baymax, he noticed a lot of injuries, and she got – she got kind of touchy about it, she wouldn't say anything, she wouldn't tell me anything, I don't know what to do – "

He looks at the two of them almost desperately.

_He cares_.

Piper's face looks slightly stricken, and, slowly, carefully, Jason considers what he can say.

"She hasn't had a happy childhood," he says, slowly. "But I think you know that already. Reyna's been through a lot in her life. Her family, her whole life from when she was very young – nothing's been particularly good for her. She's had to learn how to survive, and, well – she's chosen to cut herself off from things, because she's been rejected before, and she's always had too many secrets that she can't share."

He swallows, slightly, and guilt rises up in him. All those years, and he never knew, never thought to ask –

"She doesn't make friends very easily," says Piper, gently. "I think you know that too. She isn't very good with her emotions or her feelings. But if you want to help her – I think you should continue with whatever you're doing."

Tadashi blinks at her: "Whatever I'm doing?"

"I've known her for years," says Jason. "You and your brother are the only people I've seen her so comfortable with in such a short period of time. It took me weeks before I could get her to smile, much less laugh."

"We wouldn't be telling you anything about Reyna if we didn't think we could trust you," says Piper, and something of the fighter that she is shines out in her suddenly as she gazes, hard, at Tadashi. "And we don't know you that well yet. But I know you care for her."

"I – she's my friend – "

It's at this that Jason chuckles slightly.

Piper looks indignant.

"You people are all the same!" she complains. "Stop trying to lie to me about your feelings. You should see the way you look at her. We're only telling you what we can about Reyna because I know you will do your best to help. Your earlier comment on Baymax, about trying to get him to heal emotionally – that's because of Reyna, isn't it?"

"If you're willing to do that for her," chips in Jason, "I'm rooting for you all the way, man."

"We trust Reyna's judgement," says Piper.

"If she didn't trust you or hold you in high esteem, she wouldn't be spending so much time with you and your brother," says Jason.

"And because she trusts you," Piper informs Tadashi, "we trust you."

The three of them stand in the darkness for what seems like a very long time.

"Thank you," is all Tadashi finally says.

* * *

><p><strong>sooo...any comments? haha<strong>


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